Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley is hoping to stall the longstanding anti-incumbent midterm trends, which would hurt the GOP in 2026.
Whatley told Fox News that he has planned a “significant” role from President-elect Donald Trump in the midterm elections and will seek to build GOP state parties across the country.
But that “as we go forward into this next election cycle, the fundamentals are going to remain the same.”
MEET THE NEW CONGRESS: THE HOUSE AND SENATE FRESHMEN ELECTED TO SERVE NEXT YEAR
“We need to make sure that we are building our state parties, that we’re building our ground game, we’re building our election integrity apparatus to be in place to make sure that when we get those candidates through those primaries in ‘26, that we’re going to be in a position to take them all the way to the finish line,” he said.
Trump lost the House in 2018 after winning in 2016, and President Joe Biden did the same in 2022 after winning in 2020.
“President Trump is going to be a very significant part of this because at the end of the day, what we need to do is hold on to the House, hold on to the Senate so that we can finish his term and his agenda,” Whatley said.
He added that Trump will be “very active on the campaign trail for Republicans” and that “his agenda is the agenda that we’re going to be running on.”
WHAT MAGA AND THE GOP WILL LOOK LIKE IN A POST-TRUMP ERA
Even though Republicans got blown out in the fundraising race for the White House, Whatley is confident that they’ll be more competitive in the midterm elections.
“We’re pretty excited about where we are in terms of the fundraising that we did throughout the course of this cycle and what we’re going to do going forward,” he said.
Whatley said they will stick to their strategy of targeting “low-propensity voters,” a group they prioritized in the 2024 election. They will also continue appealing to demographics Republicans historically have not: Black voters, Hispanics and Asian American voters.
As for 2028, Whatley says they will stay neutral in what is likely to be a highly-contested presidential primary. He suggested that Trump’s movement will continue beyond his final term as president.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“America First movement is bigger than Donald Trump. He is the tip of the spear. He is the vanguard of this movement. But. It is a very big movement right now…as we go into 2028, we are in a great position to be able to continue the momentum of this agenda and this movement.”
The 2026 midterm elections will see every House seat contested, at least 35 Senate seats, and 39 gubernatorial elections.
