House GOP campaign chairman predicts 2026 midterms: ‘Will be on the offensive’
says the returning head of the House Republican campaign committee of President-elect Trump A landslide White House win in 2024 gives the GOP a huge domestic advantage as the party aims to defend its razor-thin majority in the 2026 midterm elections.
“The battleground is really in our favor. There are 14 Democrats who won seats that Donald Trump carried. There are only three Republicans in seats that Kamala Harris carried. That tells me we’re going to be on the offensive.” National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson emphasized in a recent Fox News Digital interview.
Trump carried all seven key battleground states and won the popular vote last month, defeating Vice President Harris for the first time in three presidential elections.
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President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP/Evan Vucci)
Republicans also wrested control of the Senate from Democrats, although they lost two seats in the election. House for 435 people, they will hold a fragile 220-215 majority when the new Congress convenes next month.
Eight years ago, when Trump first won the White House and held a majority in the House of Representatives, Democrats targeted nearly two dozen Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections, which Trump lost in the 2016 election.
Democrats succeeded in overturning the majority of the House of Representatives in blue wave elections.
Fast forward eight years and it’s a different story, as this time Republicans will be defending friendly field seats in districts carried by the president-elect.
“There’s more opportunity for us to attack,” said Hudson, who has represented a congressional district in central North Carolina for a decade.
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Hudson also said that House Republicans, who will be targeted again by Democrats in the upcoming election cycle, “are really battle-tested. I mean, they’ve been through fire before. They’ve been through several elections. Millions of dollars spent against them.”
“They were able to succeed because they worked hard in their districts. As you know, they created very strong brands, people who know how to get things done and deliver to their communities,” he stressed. “Republicans in difficult seats are our best candidates.”
The three House Republicans in districts Harris carried last month are Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mike Lawler of New York.
President-elect Donald Trump greets National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina during day four of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 18, 2024 in Milwaukee. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
But there will be a big difference in 2026: Trump, who helped drive low-propensity voters to the polls this year, won’t be on the ballot in the 2026 midterm elections.
“I would certainly like to have him on the ballot because he gets absentee voters for the other candidates,” Hudson admitted.
But he argued, “If you look at the way this race is shaping up, we campaigned on the core issues that we promised to deliver. If we deliver on those, and Donald Trump campaigns with us on our candidates, I believe we’re going to turn out a higher percentage of those voters than we’ve had in the midterms in the past.” we can.”
Hudson said Trump has been a “great partner” with House Republicans this year and will be again in the upcoming election cycle.
“(Trump) cares about having a majority in the House because he understands that a Democratic House majority means the destruction of his agenda. So he’s been very busy, he’s been a very good partner for us in this last election, and I look forward to that. does.”
Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, is interviewed by Fox News Digital on Dec. 11, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
Hudson, who is returning for a second straight term to chair the NRCC, said recruiting candidates and fundraising are on the committee’s to-do list.
“I mean, first of all, we have to go out and recruit candidates. You know, the quality of the candidate is important. And then we have to raise the money. I’ll be on the road and I’ll be there helping our officials, but I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
Fox News’ Emma Woodhead contributed to this report
Editors note: Fox News Digital also interviewed Suzanne DelBene, D-Washington, D.C., chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. That report will be published on Friday.
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