This Isn’t the First Time Republicans Have Been Crushed in a Midterm

Despite President Donald Trump’s historic midterm surge, 29 rallies, 40 tele-rallies, 500 surrogate visits and $450 million in political pac support, Republicans suffered historic losses in Tuesday’s election.

Republicans managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Iran war, gas prices, food prices, interest rates… Trump voters feel betrayed. Trump said he would lower prices. But voters ran out of patience – they’ve been suffering under Bidenflation since 2020, which then became Trump’s problem when he was elected. Six years of high gas prices and inflation, and voters had enough. Any change looked better for many. But it will be a case of “be careful what you wish for.”

Trump promised no forever wars, yet the Iran war, which was supposed to be weeks long, continues wth no end in sight.

Vice President JD Vance posted a lengthy post on X on what he believes led to the Republican repudiation. This is just part of it:

So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we’re going to shock the world? “No,” he told me. “We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us.”

I’m not exactly sure what “Change our relationship to Israel” means, unless he’s advocating for abandoning Israel. I will add that reforming the U.S. budget, curbing government spending, and codifying DOGE would have helped bring down costs dramatically. The Republican Congress failed to deliver what voters wanted and needed the most in two years, and voters felt deceived.

And Congress has not only done nothing to reform the healthcare disaster Obamacare ushered in, Congress has delivered little to nothing. When Republicans are the Party in power, they squander the opportunity.

We’ve reported on Trump’s record low unemployment, the resurgence of manufacturing, bringing corporations back to the US, closing down the border, record crime drop, and other important wins are as important, and huge wins. But if voters don’t feel the wins in take-home pay, the only recourse is to vote, or to stay home. Cost-of-living issues are very real for the majority of voters.

History Repeats

I did a search on historical midterm losses for Republicans, as well as the last time Republicans suffered such a dramatic midterm loss:

He argued the real message was in the large non-voting bloc – the voters who sat out the election:

Since our last meeting we have been through a disastrous election. It is easy for us to be discouraged, as pundits hail that election as a repudiation of our philosophy and even as a mandate of some kind or other. But the significance of the election was not registered by those who voted, but by those who stayed home. If there was anything like a mandate it will be found among almost two-thirds of the citizens who refused to participate.

He later tied the low turnout to the lack of clear contrast:

I don’t know about you, but I am impatient with those Republicans who after the last election rushed into print saying, “We must broaden the base of our party” – when what they meant was to fuzz up and blur even more the differences between ourselves and our opponents.

It was a feeling that there was not a sufficient difference now between the parties that kept a majority of the voters away from the polls.

Those who stayed home did so because they “couldn’t see any difference between the two parties.”

Reagan’s core lesson was that the remedy was not to blur distinctions or chase moderates by becoming “pale pastels.” Instead, offer a clear, principled contrast—“bold colors”—so voters have a positive reason to support you. He warned against becoming indistinguishable from the opposition and insisted a party must stand for something fundamental rather than trying to be all things to all people.

Reagan’s speech is widely cited as a defining moment for the modern conservative movement, setting the stage for Reagan’s later challenge to President Gerald Ford and his eventual presidential victories, by emphasizing clear philosophical differences over pure opposition or compromise for its own sake.

Low turnout is often less about pure apathy and more about “why bother if it doesn’t change anything meaningful?”

Voters respond to parties that stake out distinct positions and then follow through. Reagan’s own later success in 1980 and especially the 1984 landslide rested on a positive, optimistic contrast – his “Morning in America,” the Reagan tax cuts, deregulation, and stronger defense – rather than just criticism of Carter or Mondale. Reagan expanded the map by making the difference visible and tangible.

When parties look interchangeable on key issues—or when the “winning” side fails to deliver—those non-voters have little incentive to engage.

“President Donald Trump acknowledged early Wednesday that the Iran war and its impact on gas prices played a role in the midterm election drubbing Republicans suffered but he vowed to try to work with the Democrats now poised to take control of Congress,” Just the News reported.

“Republicans suffered historic losses in Tuesday’s election, thrusting the last two years of Trump’s second presidency into hostile territory, a painful reality for a president who held 29 rallies, 40-plus telephone rallies, spent $450 million of his own PAC money in a relentless bid to keep Republicans in control in the final month of the election.

“He acknowledged the Iran war was ‘a piece of’ the election dynamic but that he had no regrets about his decision to bomb Tehran and eliminate its nuclear capabilities.

“I don’t think about it. I did the right thing. I would have done it again,” Trump said.

I agree that it is time to move forward, but the only way is to embrace the best of America First, reject the swamp Establishment.

Voters delivered a Republican presidency, a Republican House, and a Republican Senate majority in 2024. Yet, as an X follower succinctly noted, the Senate, led by John Thune, failed to codify President Trump’s executive orders, slowed down crucial judicial appointments, took extensive recesses, and failed to pass the SAVE America Act. If leadership refuses to use the historic majorities voters fight to give them, it completely undermines the base’s trust.

Reagan’s entire 1974 speech is here.