House Republicans are looking to defy history and grow their ranks in 2026 with a little help from Donald Trump—and his MAGA base.
The head of the House GOP campaign strategy insists the traditional midterm backlash against the party that controls the White House won’t be a factor in the 2026 midterm elections.
“We’re in a historically different time,” Rep. Richard Hudson told the Daily Beast. Hudson, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, argued Trump’s tectonic comeback in November handed the entire party a mandate beyond the 2024 cycle.
Voters already know Donald Trump. After rejecting him in 2020 at the end of his first term in the White House amid a mismanaged deadly pandemic, Americans wanted him back.
“It’s different than when someone just gets elected, and then the voters get to know them, and then usually they want some check or balance on them after a couple of years,” Hudson said. This midterm congressional election, he predicted, will be a “referendum on: how did we do delivering on the mandate?”
The NRCC’s game plan hinges on mobilizing Trump voters, with turnout usually lower in off-presidential election cycles. The trick will lie in—not just selling GOP House candidates to voters—but in convincing them Trump is part of the ticket, even if he isn’t.
“And Trump—he’s still here,” Hudson said. “He’s still the incumbent president. He still can do rallies and be in mail pieces, and so he’s an incredible partner for us.”
Winning will also involve legislating Trump’s campaign promises—a tall order for fractured Republicans who hold a two-seat majority in the House—and selling those achievements at the polls.
”I think the next election will be a referendum on—how did we do on delivering on the mandate,” Hudson said in an interview held at the House GOP retreat last week at Trump’s Doral golf resort outside Miami.
Republicans in swing districts are optimistic.
They include Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a self-described “American patriot” who was elected to Congress a year and 10 months after attending Trump’s “Save America” rally on the National Mall on Jan. 6, 2021, that preceded the Capitol attack.
“The American people gave him a clear mandate in November, and he is delivering on his promises,” Van Orden said of Trump. “His highly successful work will energize Republican voters to get out and vote, especially those who do not typically participate in midterm elections.”
Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-WI, a Harley-Davidson rider, attended Trump’s rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021. / Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag
Van Orden will need to drive MAGA voters to the polls: Trump carried his western Wisconsin district by more than 7 points in 2024, while Van Orden won by just 2.7 points.
More challenging, perhaps, will be getting the vociferous president to bite his tongue and hold his fire against moderates in swing districts who inevitably won’t support his every policy, or whim. And sources familiar with the midterm campaign strategy say Trump has been receptive to not attacking his critics in an effort to get his agenda passed.
“He was willing to endorse where he thought it would help us win seats,” one senior Republican source said.
Rep. Don Bacon, a GOP moderate from a swing district in Nebraska that Kamala Harris won in 2024 and Joe Biden in 2020, said the only way to win the midterms is to pass bills.
“We need to deliver on the promises: wages climbing faster over inflation; a secured border; energy independence, and deterrence abroad restored,” he told the Beast. “Stability is needed.”
Hudson pointed to a number of congressional districts that once seemed out of reach but are now shifting in the GOP’s favor. In 2018, Republicans scrambled to defend 23 seats in districts won by Hillary Clinton in 2016. They retained only three.
Speaker Mike Johnson and NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) are bullish about Republicans growing their majority in 2026, / Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag
But now they see juicier targets: 13 Democrats sitting in Trump territory. They include Jared Golden of Maine, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington and Marcy Kaptur of Ohio.
Trump himself is deeply invested in the House battlefield. Hudson said the president showed a surprising command of district-level details during their strategy sessions last cycle. “His engagement level was unbelievable. He would remember candidates who ran four years ago. I don’t even remember that,” the chairman said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson echoed Hudson’s sentiments, saying, “We are going to win and grow the House majority in 2026.”
Even in swing districts where Republicans occasionally break with Trump, the party has managed to win, such as with Reps. David Valadao of California and Dan Newhouse of Washington, the only two Republicans left in Congress who voted to impeach Trump in 2021.
Hudson noted that Democrats have a structural advantage in raising cash. According to the latest Federal Election Commission reports, the NRCC raised $255,155,893 to the DCCC’s $339,935,853 last cycle, with the House GOP’s campaign arm closing the year with $11,084,116, and Democrats with $24,232,592.
Hudson said he’s also on the lookout for potential retirements, which could be a problem in staving off a blue wave.
“There’s a number of folks that have been rumored they’re going to run for senator, governor, and I’ve had conversations with them and just say, ‘Don’t surprise me,’” he said.
