Once upon a time Democrats used to ask, “What’s the matter with Kansas?” Now it’s Republicans who may be tempted to adopt the phrase. For almost a century – 94 years, to be exact – Democrats have not won a senatorial seat in the sunflower state. But what’s rapidly developing is a red undertow, thanks to President Trump’s mounting unpopularity. The widely respected Cook Report has just announced that a Senate majority is squarely in the sights of the Democrats – and moved Kansas from “lean Republican” to a toss-up state.
Blimey! It’s no wonder that Trump has been barnstorming in deep red America to try and rescue the midterm elections. The polls suggest that Democrats are headed for a landslide but they’ve been wrong before. More than a few Republicans are hoping against hope that the 2026 election is reminiscent of Joe Biden’s 2022 midterm, when the Democrats managed to stave off a big defeat.
Mainly what I hear on the political right, though, is that this election will likely lead to an intra-party war after November. One Republican political operative told me that “The GOP is headed towards a historic wipeout, and that’s in the Senate. The presidential election begins at 12:01 am on November 4 and there’s any number of Republicans who cannot wait for that moment to come.” The operative added, “that means that Trump, who is already flailing, will flail even more. You can only try to imagine what will occur. Who had nuking LA and San Diego on their bingo card?”
The polls suggest that Democrats are headed for a landslide but they’ve been wrong before
Who indeed? On Monday Trump’s attempt to bolster the Republican brand was overshadowed by his injudicious remarks about Los Angeles and San Diego being ripe targets for Iran to “take out.” Trump may have thought he was being funny. But for Republicans such as naval veteran Jim Desmond, who is running for Congress in San Diego, it was no laughing matter. Writing on X, Desmond piously declared: “I served to protect Americans, not write off American cities as an acceptable price of war. Our job is to keep Americans safe, stand up to our enemies, and make sure a threat like that never becomes reality. No American city is expendable, and no American family should ever be treated as collateral damage.” Trump’s draconian tariff and immigration policies have put other Republicans in a pickle. In Michigan, Republican congressman John James, who is running for Governor, depicted himself during a debate on Tuesday with his Democratic opponent Jocelyn Benson as someone who would have little hesitation about challenging Trump: “I’ve stood up to the President many times. I’ve said that I can agree with the President without worshipping him. I can disagree without attacking him, and I always put Michigan first.”
Perhaps the most telling sign that Trump himself is concerned about Republican prospects comes not only with his tour of red states but also with the drastic sartorial change that he has adopted to indicate that he’s a true-blue American. At a rally on Monday night in Nebraska, Trump opened his suit jacket to brandish its Jos. A Bank label. So much for the nifty Italian Brioni suits that he previously favored. “You could buy ten of those for one Brioni,” a staunchly conservative friend of mine marveled.
Another tactic that Trump is pondering, or at least fantasizing about, is whether to mess with the elections themselves. Whether this is simply liberal fear mongering or a legitimate cause for apprehension is an open question. But it was widely reported that former Mesa County elections official Tina Peters, who was convicted on state charges of heading an attempted breach of the county voting system in 2020, met with Trump on Monday. Her latest brainchild: persuade Trump to push Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to seize state voting machines on the pretext that they contain foreign-made parts and are susceptible to tampering from abroad.
Such schemes testify more to Trump’s desperation than a coherent plan for averting a Republican calamity in November. Trump would do better to keep tabs on the advisers who are heading his congressional campaign operation. James Blair and Chris LaCivita, the New York Times reported late yesterday, went AWOL in the Balkans last week even as Trump was campaigning for the GOP. His two top MAGA Inc. political aides were trying to fulfill a lucrative contract from the Republika Sprska to assist a pro-Russian government in tightening its hold on power. What happened to America First?
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