‘Trump is dragging the party down’: GOP scrambles to stop steep midterm losses

The Republican Party’s midterm campaign has turned into a triage operation just three weeks out from November, as officials race to avert losses in a string of once-safe seats that they increasingly fear could cost them total control of Congress.

The worsening landscape has alarmed GOP operatives across several battleground states, forcing the party to pour resources into traditionally red districts and states at the expense of their once-expansive ambitions in Democratic areas.

And after months of pressing President Donald Trump to ramp up his travel on behalf of key candidates, some Republicans now worry he’s grown so unpopular that his presence on the campaign trail may in some cases be doing more harm than good.

One House Republican running for re-election said of the president’s numbers: “Trump is dragging the party down.”

The grim outlook gripping the GOP follows weeks of polling showing Republicans on track to lose the House amid intense voter anger over the Iran war and rising cost of living — and at grave risk of losing their once-solid majority in the Senate as well.

The widening number of competitive races has complicated Republican leaders’ plans to make up ground by unleashing hundreds of millions of dollars down the stretch. Despite a massive cash advantage fueled in part by pro-Trump super PAC, MAGA Inc., the spending so far has failed to significantly shift Republicans’ fortunes as more money gets diverted toward races once counted on as comfortable wins.

Already, the Senate Leadership Fund, the top GOP super PAC in Senate races, has suspended its ad reservations in North Carolina and plowed at least $10 million into Kansas, which has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932. It also recently invested $5 million in South Carolina to boost incumbent Sen. Darline Graham amid concerns among some Republicans she’s losing ground to Democrat Annie Andrews in the deep red state.

That’s on top of the more than $100 million that the Senate Leadership Fund has spent in Texas to boost Ken Paxton, who is scrambling to shore up GOP support in his race with Democrat James Talarico after a bruising primary campaign. Trump himself has now traveled to Texas three times in one month to rally voters on Paxton’s behalf.

“We were all hoping the war was going to be over now, but it’s not,” said one Trump adviser. “We shouldn’t have a fight in a place like Texas, but obviously we do.”

Top Republicans steering spending on the House side are also expected to narrow their focus in the coming days, doubling down on races they see as winnable while slashing their investment in candidates whose fortunes are fading, multiple people familiar with the matter said.

That winnowing will mark the latest acknowledgment of the challenge facing Republicans — and an effort to concentrate resources on the select candidates capable of defending their seats, or flipping blue districts, and limiting Democrats’ encroachment overall.

The Cook Political Report dealt the latest blow on Friday, moving 18 House races toward Democrats. Those contests include five toss-up seats across Iowa, Pennsylvania and Washington that the closely watched analysis projects the Democratic candidates are now more likely to win.

The Senate map has also provided little reassurance for the GOP. Paxton is suffering a drip-drip of damaging audio leaks from a private fundraiser, further frustrating Republican officials who already believe he’s running a poor campaign. Democrats hold polling leads in swing states like Georgia and North Carolina, while making insurgent runs in solidly red states like Alaska and even Kansas.

“I don’t know that the environment could possibly get worse than it is,” said Jason Roe, a Michigan GOP strategist advising Rep. Tom Barrett, who is in a neck-and-neck race against Democratic challenger Will Lawrence. “If we lose this, it couldn’t have been won.”

Inside the White House, Trump and his top advisers are clear-eyed about the difficult odds of keeping the House and the rising threat to the Senate majority, people familiar with the matter said.

But there is still optimism that Republicans can limit their losses and turn the prospect of a blue wave into little more than a ripple. Trump advisers expect the polls to tighten in swing races in the campaign’s final days, especially as more ads hit the airwaves and less-engaged Republican voters begin to tune in.

“I’m not saying we are going to f***ing win, it is going to be so great. No, I am not saying that. But do we get wiped out? No, we aren’t gonna get wiped out,” said another House Republican running for re-election.

Some strong GOP candidates are likely to outperform the generic ballot polling that shows Democrats favored by a healthy margin, the people familiar argued. At the same time, they’re counting on a handful of far-left Democratic candidates to underperform. And even at the current margins, they note, the difference between Republicans losing the House or expanding their majority is only a matter of a few percentage points across a handful of races.

“This election is going to come down to one side saying Republicans have not cleaned their mess up fast enough, and what we are saying is, ‘We know you are struggling, but these are the things we are doing to make your life better and, by the way, they are crazy,” another Republican told CNN.

For his part, Speaker Mike Johnson has vowed to do everything he can to hold the majority and is campaigning in more than 40 districts and 20 states leading up to the election.

“Speaker Johnson is not slowing down and helping to get resources to every district that will decide the majority,” Johnson’s political communications director, Greg Steele, said in a statement to CNN.

While Trump has largely steered clear of swing districts of late, he has shown newfound enthusiasm for the campaign trail that his advisers have rushed to take advantage of, sending him to favorable areas across the country where they believe he can help GOP turnout. They’ve shrugged off any talk of Trump needing to lay low given his sagging approval ratings, arguing that the midterms are going to be a referendum on his presidency no matter what.

“The panic is unwarranted and it’s unfounded,” one White House official said of the GOP’s midterm trajectory. “It’s all going to come down to who has the ability to turn out their low-propensity voters. … That’s why we’re going where we’re going: To jazz up the base.”

In a statement, White House spokesman Davis Ingle called Trump “the unequivocal leader, best messenger, and unmatched motivator for the Republican Party.”

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella said in a statement, “House Republicans have a more favorable map, a stronger ground game, historic fundraising and spending advantages and battle-tested incumbents while Democrats are stuck dragging their unelectable socialist nominees across the finish line.”

A senior Republican National Committee official argued that pollsters and strategists are writing off the GOP’s chances in the midterms too soon.

“The first ones to rush and get on the phone with you all in these times are not the ones in the fight,” the official told CNN. “They would rather just say nobody knows what they are doing and everything is doomed than take an objective look at what is happening.”

Trump’s rallies — which included a stop in Texas on Thursday and a trip to upstate New York on Friday to stump for gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman — have bolstered Trump’s mood and view of Republicans’ chances, the White House official and others familiar with his comments said.

Nevertheless, Trump has tacitly acknowledged that his presence may not be helpful everywhere at a time when large majorities are frustrated with his economic policies and oppose the Iran war.

The president has declined to rebuke GOP candidates who have broken with him on the war and tariffs out of an understanding that they “need to run a campaign,” the White House official said — though those Republicans have still typically cleared the move with the White House ahead of time.

Trump has also stayed away from some races where vulnerable Republicans have tried to carve out an identity separate from him, such as Maine Sen. Susan Collins. The president isn’t currently expected to travel to Maine ahead of the midterms, people familiar with the matter said, though they cautioned his schedule fluctuates and that could change.

Still, there’s little expectation that any GOP candidate can fully escape the gravitational pull that Trump has exerted on the political landscape since returning to the White House.

And after nearly two years of demands for GOP unity, Trump advisers have counseled Republicans that their best hope in the final weeks is to make their own pitches for why they should get another term in Congress — and crucially, what they plan to do once they’re there to assuage voters’ frustrations.

“We’re fighting it out individually now,” the Trump adviser said. “It’s ugly out there for both sides, and it’s going to be hand-to-hand combat.”

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