Conservatives were left stunned by the results of the 2026 midterm elections Tuesday and are attempting to grapple with the new political landscape.
Democrats dominated in red and blue states alike, easily retaking both the House and Senate, as well as flipping several governorships. Democrats picked up victories in numerous states won by President Donald Trump in 2024, including seemingly deep-red spots like Texas, South Carolina and Kansas.
Members of conservative media were gobsmacked by the sweeping defeats.
“It is a catastrophic night for Republicans,” Washington Examiner columnist Guy Benson reacted on Fox.
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“Sometimes you get your a– kicked, and deserve it. Tonight is one such time for the Republican Party,” conservative radio host Buck Sexton reacted to the results on X. “Way too many mistakes. Bad messaging. Poor candidates. High prices. Unnecessary war that did not go as promised. We get up tomorrow and carry on. But there are lessons here.”
“Tbh most Republican candidates this cycle were uninspiring, lazy, and thoroughly ineffective communicators. I’m not all that surprised by some of these outcomes,” Trump advisor Alex Bruesewitz said.
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“[Trump] picked a bunch of the bad ones,” commentator Mary Katharine Ham wrote on X of the losing candidates.
Many pointed to Trump, the war with Iran and the surge in gas prices as being responsible for the devastating losses for his party.
“Trump launched an unpopular and pointless war. Gas prices are too high. People can’t afford groceries. Trump abandoned the American First message. This is why Republicans are getting crushed. It’s very simple,” The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh wrote.
“This will be the biggest national wipeout for Republicans since 2006, when voters brutally punished the GOP for an ill-advised and poorly planned war in the Middle East,” The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis said.
However, conservative radio host Erick Erickson insisted the issues went far beyond the Iran war and gas prices.
“It was also the corruption. The incompetence. The tariffs. The playing nice with Russia. The impression of cruelty. The overly aggressive deportations. The accidental arrests of American citizens who were Hispanic. The arrogance. The ballroom. The reflecting poll. The golf courses. The arch. The Qatari 747. The aggressive redistricting push. The threats against enemies,” Erickson listed.
The “Ruthless Podcast” hosts appeared on Fox News Channel and joked about leaning towards hard liquor as the night progressed.
“I don’t think this was, at all, concerned with policy. This is a firm backlash,” Josh Holmes told Fox News’ Bret Baier.
“This is an absolute backlash from the voters,” Comfortably Smug agreed. “They aren’t concerned with the policies these Democrats have. They aren’t concerned with any kind of vision for the future that the Democrats are offering or how they’re going to fight inflation … They are angry, and they’re making their voices heard.”
“Ruthless” co-host Michael Duncan suggested there was a “dissonance” among voters separating the Democratic policies that were rejected under the Biden administration and that the GOP message “didn’t resonate.”
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“Ultimately, at the end of the day, the present condition of the voters is what they vote on, not the scary thing you project into the future. And unfortunately, that’s the problem for the Republican Party,” Duncan said. “It didn’t matter if it was a DSA candidate or [Annie] Andrews in South Carolina. They all moved up in a wave together, irrespective of that.”
Trump did several interviews as the results rolled in, congratulating Democrats and saying he was willing to work with the party controlling Congress and also ready to use the veto.
Trump said he believed he had support for the war with Iran but felt voters weren’t willing to put up with the “short-term” pain of higher gas prices. He also said he didn’t feel like it was a personal defeat since he wasn’t on the ballot.
“I think the Democrats did a good job,” he told Fox News. “I really do. I think they did a good job. They fought hard. They’ve been fighting for a long time.”
Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.
