Congress

Place Your Bets: A 2026 Political Quiz

Published

6 months ago

December 31, 2025

In the spirit of the late William Safire’s long-running “Office Pool,” I bring you this column’s predictions for 2026 — from Senate races to unexpected congressional resignations, and even the future of a certain controversial new college football hire.

To make it easier, and have some fun, the soothsaying is multiple choice. Feel free to answer yourself, but worry not, accountability-seekers: My guesses will also be included under each question, along with some context. Yes, I’m borrowing an earlier era’s format. But the same can be said about end-of-year columns as is said for old yarns: no new stories, only new audiences.

So with hopes that this will be new to most and bring back fond memories for others, let’s get to the guessing: 16 for ’26.

1) What Washington landmark will President Donald Trump name after himself in conjunction with America’s 250th birthday?
A) Dulles Airport
B) The Dulles Airport “people-movers”
C) Arlington Memorial Bridge
D) The National Mall

2) Should Justice Samuel Alito retire, or another vacancy open on the Supreme Court, who will Trump appoint?
A) Jeanine Pirro
B) Andrew Oldham
C) Aileen Cannon
D) Ted Cruz

3) How soon after appointing his new “My Kevin” — Kevin Hassett or Kevin Warsh — as Federal Reserve Chair will Trump pressure him to lower interest rates?
A) In the Truth Social post announcing his selection
B) In his remarks at the White House event making it official
C) In response to shouted press questions at said White House event
D) Never — Trump will fulfill his New Year’s resolution respecting the traditional independence of the Fed

4) Now that he’s ordered strikes on targets in Iran, Nigeria, Syria, Somalia, Yemen and over the Caribbean, what country will Trump attack next?
A) Venezuela
B) Iran, again
C) Russia
D) Canada, and specifically the provincial capitol building in Toronto, should Premier Doug Ford run another tariff ad on American TV

5) Trump will endorse the winning candidate in which Republican primary?
A) Kentucky’s Fourth Congressional District, represented by Rep. Thomas Massie
B) Indiana State Senate District 37, represented by Rod Bray, the president pro tempore who defied Trump’s redistricting demands
C) U.S. Senate in Texas
D) U.S. Senate in Louisiana

6) For all of the attention Democrats are lavishing on the Texas Senate campaign, which other Senate races will have a closer final margin in the general election?
A) Maine
B) North Carolina
C) Ohio
D) Nebraska
E) All of the above

7) Which 2028 Democratic presidential hopeful will unwittingly hurt their candidacy by writing a book?
A) Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, by revealing he’s still doing self-discovery in his late-50s
B) Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, by revisiting the arson of the governor’s mansion so much that a tragedy becomes an origin story for a campaign — and without much subtlety
C) Former Vice President Kamala Harris, by confusing book tour crowds and enthusiasm for the notion that Democrats want to relive anything relating to 2024
D) Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, by showing, again, that he’s the smartest kid in class and affirming his future in appointive, not elective, politics

8) After next year’s election, the Trump-ordered redrawing of red state House maps and subsequent arms race will be seen as:
A) A political masterstroke
B) Having helped Democrats retake the House
C) The hinge point marking Trump’s slide from full control of the GOP
D) Close to a wash: Republicans picked up a few seats but between the Trump-imposed redraw and the new maps enacted after the Supreme Court guts the Voting Rights Act, the GOP got greedy and imperiled a few incumbents who lost in a difficult year after their previously-safe districts absorbed more Democrats.

9) Which House Republican, after Marjorie Taylor Greene, will resign before this session of Congress is over?
A) Rep. Don Bacon (Neb.)
B) Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.)
C) Rep. Victoria Spartz (Ind.)
D) Rep. Cory Mills (Fla.)

10) By the end of 2026, which Republican will emerge as the best-positioned to challenge J.D. Vance for the 2028 GOP nomination?
A) Ted Cruz
B) Ivanka Trump
C) Tucker Carlson
D) Marco Rubio

11) The first major Trump appointee to leave his or her post will be:
A) Kash Patel
B) Kristi Noem
C) Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
D) Pete Hegseth

12) Who is finally able to convince Trump that Vladimir Putin has no interest in stopping the war and only wants to string Trump along?
A) Marco Rubio
B) Alex Stubb
C) Sylvester Stallone
D) Jared Kushner

13) What “known unknown” will take place in 2026?
A) China invades Taiwan
B) Russia finds a pretext to attack another neighbor
C) Lula and Trump begin to hit it off, and Trump offers the leftist leader his “total and complete endorsement” ahead of Brazil’s fall election
D) The west endures irregular but persistent terrorist attacks from non-state actors, like the massacre in Sydney

14) Democrats will flip the governorship of which state?
A) Florida
B) Ohio
C) Iowa
D) Alabama

15) NVDA shares will close 2026 at?
A) $300
B) $250
C) $175
D) $37 — the tech bubble finally bursts

16) The results from season one of the Lane Kiffin Experiment at LSU will be:
A) Drama and a debacle of a year
B) Drama and just good enough of a season to make the playoffs
C) Drama and dominance, with the Tigers poised to win the national title
D) Incomplete because Lane’s interest in hot yoga takes him away from football and he leaves Baton Rouge to embark on a midlife-crisis Eat Pray Love — but with naan, Hinduism and a nice co-ed on the subcontinent

Congress

Johnson says he will send housing bill to Trump on Monday

Published

14 hours ago

June 28, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Speaker Mike Johsnon said he plans to send President Donald Trump a bipartisan housing bill Monday, just days after the president abruptly canceled a signing ceremony for the legislation after Congress failed to pass his elections security act.

Speaking with Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Johnson said the 21st Century ROAD To Housing Act is a Republican priority for lowering costs for Americans.

“I’m going to send the bill over to him on Monday, and it will become law,” the Louisiana Republican told host Maria Bartiromo. “I certainly want him to take the biggest, boldest marker that he has and do that big Trump signature proudly on that legislation because we’re delivering for the people, and that’s what he wants to do.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Johnson’s remarks.

The bill is the product of almost a year of back-and-forth between all four congressional corners and aims to increase affordability by boosting housing supply and home ownership. It passed both chambers of Congress with wide bipartisan support.

Trump was scheduled to sign the bill into law last week but canceled the ceremony “until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency.”

Trump’s SAVE America Act would require voters to present a photo ID at the ballot box and effectively end mail-in voting. Trump has also said he would like the bill to include prohibitions on transgender athletes competing. But Republican leaders have repeatedly indicated the legislation does not have enough votes to pass.

Congressional leaders appeared taken aback by Trump’s signing cancellation, but Johnson on Sunday said he and the president have since met in the Oval Office to discuss the housing bill “in great detail.”

“We made a lot of promises to the voters, and we’re fulfilling those every single day of this Congress,” Johnson said. “This is a big part of that because this will increase the availability, the access to more housing, bring down cost, cut regulations, do the things we know are very important for that market. The president and I talked about that at length. Of course he wants to do those things.”

But if Trump does not sign the housing bill into law within the next few days, it would still become law unless he were to veto it. Congress also has the power to override a presidential veto.

Congress

Sen. Thom Tillis rails against Trump’s fixation on voting legislation

Published

15 hours ago

June 28, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Thom Tillis on Sunday expressed frustration with President Donald Trump’s continued fixation on passing the SAVE America Act.

In an interview with BLN’s “Face the Nation,” the retiring North Carolina Republican lamented “the impossible task” of implementing the requirements of the legislation ahead of November’s crucial midterms.

“Why are we doing more things to undermine our confidence in elections, rather than getting the strong message out that will win for Republicans this year?” Tillis said.

Rather than promoting the bill — which would require voters to present a photo ID at the ballot box and effectively end widespread mail-in voting — Tillis said Republicans should tell voters about “the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America” while accepting the current voting laws.

“Win by the good results that Republicans have produced and stop undermining the confidence in the elections,” said Tillis. “This is a bedrock of our 250-year history of success as the democracy that changed the world. Let’s not mess with that between now and November.”

Trump has said the SAVE America Act is his “No. 1 priority” ahead of midterms, going so far as to abruptly cancel a bill signing for major bipartisan legislation on housing affordability until Congress passes his elections bill. But many Democrats are staunchly against the bill, arguing it could disenfranchise millions of voters, and Republican leaders in Congress have repeatedly indicated it does not have the votes to pass.

Tillis co-sponsored the original SAVE America Act but has objected to Trump’s version of the legislation, which would also bar transgender athletes from women’s sports.

It’s not the first time Tillis has clashed with Trump.

Earlier this year, Tillis blocked Trump’s Fed chair nominee, Kevin Warsh, until the Justice Department dropped an investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. He has also spoken out against the Justice Department’s $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” calling it a “payout for punks.” And he has emerged as a fierce critic of Bill Pulte, Trump’s interim director of national intelligence.

“Let’s try and figure out a way to completely and finally end these distractions so that we can focus on the damage Democrats could do if they take the House, if they beat incumbent Republicans in the Senate. That’s what Republicans need to be talking about between now and November,” Tillis said Sunday.

Congress

Sen. Bill Cassidy on Trump: ‘Sometimes he acts as if Congress is merely an appendage’

Published

16 hours ago

June 28, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Bill Cassidy appeared to question President Donald Trump’s view of Congress, saying in an interview that he is not sure Trump grasps that Congress “is a separate body, separate from the presidency.”

“Sometimes he acts as if Congress is merely an appendage, and, frankly, sometimes Congress acts like it’s an appendage,” the Louisiana Republican said in a pre-taped interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” that aired Sunday.

The latest criticism in a public clash between the two leaders, Cassidy also told host Margaret Brennan that he would be focused on affordability, including the cost of health care and groceries, if he were president.

“If I were president, I would be focused on those people that they have, my people, our people, us at the kitchen table. How do you make their life better? And that’s what I think the president should be focused on,” Cassidy said.

The relationship between Cassidy and Trump has been rocky for some time. Cassidy was one of only a handful of Republican leaders who voted to convict Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Trump and Cassidy recently clashed in a closed-door meeting between GOP leaders, with Cassidy admitting he raised his voice to “match” the president’s.

“The president said something negative about me. I received it as attempting to bully me from asking a question that I think the American people need to know, and I’m not going to be bullied,” Cassidy said at the time.

However, after receiving a special briefing from Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff, Cassidy changed his vote on a resolution designed to rein in Trump’s power to wage war against Iran.

“They said right now the negotiations are delicate, and they could collapse if they’re not nursed along in the appropriate way. I can accept that,” Cassidy said.

“That’s the reason they said for their kind of lack of being forthcoming. I can accept that, but my goal was to be briefed, to have the truth in order to make a decision for the benefit of my country, and that was satisfied.”

Still, Cassidy’s stance against Trump has cost him: After serving more than a decade in the Senate, Cassidy lost his campaign for renomination after Trump endorsed against him. Rep. Julia Letlow will be the Louisiana Republican Senate candidate this fall.