PARTY IN PANIC

Republicans Plunge Into Raging Blame Game Ahead of Wipeout

With Democrats leading in the polls, Republicans are scrambling to contain mounting losses.

Republicans are increasingly turning on one another as mounting signs of a Democratic wave ahead of the midterm elections raise fears that the GOP could lose control of both chambers of Congress.

Democrats hold an eight-point lead on the generic congressional ballot, according to the RealClearPolling average, while several House districts that President Donald Trump won by double digits in 2024 are now considered competitive.

Vulnerable seats span Ohio, Maine, Iowa, North Carolina and Nevada, as well as a Kentucky district Trump carried by 15 points.

With a Republican wipeout looming, party members are already preparing their excuses.

“If it happens, there will be plenty of blame to go around,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew told Politico.

For an increasing number of Republicans on Capitol Hill, Trump himself is a central part of the problem. Lawmakers have privately blamed his decision to launch an open-ended war with Iran for driving up fuel prices, according to Politico.

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Trump’s approval rating has fallen into the low 30s since the war began in February. The conflict has sent fuel costs soaring, with AAA reporting an average U.S. gasoline price of $4.30 a gallon and diesel at $6.32.

Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, widely expected to become the next chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, acknowledged that economic anger could determine the outcome of November’s elections.

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“If the Democrats do win the House and the Senate, it won’t be because of their left-wing lunatic candidates, it’ll be because people are p---ed off about gas prices, and I get that,” Moreno told reporters Thursday.

Other Republicans blame Trump for sidelining established GOP figures in favor of candidates aligned with his MAGA movement. Three Republican senators and a national GOP operative told Politico that Trump pushed out stronger incumbents and backed flawed replacements, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton—who defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in a Republican primary runoff after receiving Trump’s backing—in the state’s Senate race.

Paxton is trailing Democratic rival James Talarico despite Texas’s long-standing Republican lean.

Meanwhile, Trump has already identified who he will blame if Paxton loses.

“If Ken Paxton loses, it will be because of WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Political Hacks like John Cornyn and Karl Rove, who have ineffectively opposed me for my entire political career,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday.

But Trump is not the only target of Republican frustration. Some lawmakers say the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) failed to respond quickly enough as the electoral map deteriorated in August and September.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, a Trump ally facing a surprisingly competitive re-election campaign, publicly questioned the committee’s performance this week.

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“I am also getting calls from members wondering what is going on at the @NRCC,” Luna wrote on social media. She also criticized party leaders for focusing on internal maneuvering rather than electoral battles, adding: “Sounds to me like some in leadership need to focus on winning races instead of gaming their next steak donor dinner.”

Another House Republican was even more blunt: “The leadership at the NRCC is living in a bubble. We’re getting killed out here,” they told Politico.

The NRCC defended its record, saying it had launched coordinated advertising campaigns early in districts that were not initially considered competitive. Spokesman Mike Marinella said the committee had run coordinated ads in 51 districts.

Some party operatives, meanwhile, blame individual candidates for not taking their races seriously enough. Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas has drawn particular criticism, with Republicans complaining that his campaign has become a costly rescue operation in a state Democrats have not won in nearly a century. Trump will rally for Marshall in the state on Monday evening.

“No one in the world expected that the Senate would need as much money as they did,” a national GOP operative working on multiple competitive House races told Politico. “All of this money that was expected to go to the House, for the most part, is now being wasted on the Senate because they f---ed up so bad.”

Beyond candidate selection and campaign spending, some Republicans believe the party’s messaging isn’t giving voters a compelling reason to support it.

“Republican success in many cases is going to hinge on the following: do they give voters a reason to vote for them?” a senior Republican official familiar with MAGA Inc.’s plans told Politico.

“They’re being inundated with reasons to vote against the Democrats, and in many places they already instinctually want to. But are they given a reason to actually vote for the Republicans to show up and vote?”

The official urged candidates to focus on practical promises to improve household finances and reduce living costs, warning that Republicans risk defeat if they cannot explain how their policies would benefit voters.

“If Republicans are failing to lay out a reason to come vote for them and saying, ‘Here’s what I, as a candidate, am for, what I am going to do to make your economics better,’ there’s a good chance they’re going to lose,” they said.

With the election approaching, one Republican candidate offered a stark assessment of the party’s predicament.

“We’re running for our lives,” a House Republican told Politico. “Those are two totally different approaches. And we have two weeks.”

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