Politics

Republicans quietly celebrate the demise of tariffs. That relief might not last.

Published

9 months ago

February 20, 2026

Republicans quietly breathed a collective sigh of relief when the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Friday — but that feeling may prove fleeting.

The court’s decision to upend Trump’s global tariffs comes as affordability concerns and the cost of living continue to galvanize voters ahead of the midterms. Many free trade-friendly Republicans spent the past year worrying that the tariffs would drive prices higher, destabilize the economy and hurt their hopes of hanging onto control of Congress this November.

“It’s very possible that the Supreme Court just threw Trump’s economy a life preserver, and the president is refusing it and demanding an anchor. These tariffs economically have not played well into the affordability narrative,” said Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist and former Trump State Department official. “It just has not been helpful — full stop.”

Trump’s hard line on tariffs has proven particularly difficult for some GOP candidates to navigate in battleground states where manufacturing and agricultural industries have been hit the hardest by the trade measures. Several of Trump’s allies in farm country and Republicans encouraged him to pump the brakes Friday and reassess his path forward.

But the president’s announcement of a 10 percent global tariff immediately after the ruling had them back on their guard.

“We have very powerful alternatives,” Trump said in a press conference Friday afternoon, announcing he will sign the new tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 – and rejecting the possibility of legislating a new measure through Congress. “I don’t need to,” he said. “It’s already been approved.”

Only minutes earlier, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had suggested in a post on X thatCongress would work with the administration to find “the best path forward.”

Polling shows that Trump’s tariffs are broadly unpopular. A 45 percent plurality of Americans said in a November POLITICO Poll that higher tariffs are damaging the U.S. economy — in both the short and long term. That view falls along partisan lines, with Democrats far more likely to say the levies are damaging the U.S. economy.

Still, roughly a quarter of Trump’s own 2024 voters agree. Among Republicans who do not identify as “MAGA” — a much more malleable group of voters — opposition to the levies rose. Thirty-two percent of non-MAGA Republicans said the higher tariffs are damaging the economy in both the short and the long term, compared with just 21 percent of self-identifying MAGA Republicans.

Despite Americans’ overall disapproval of the White House’s tariff agenda, Trump remains bullish on his approach.

“Without tariffs, this country would be in such trouble right now,” he said in a Thursday speech before a crowd gathered at a factory in northwest Georgia. “I’ve won affordability,” he added.

But the uncertainty around what comes next on tariffs has some Republicans questioning why the administration didn’t go through Congress from the start, instead choosing a legally riskier route that has left at least a temporary vacuum at the heart of their economic agenda in an election year.

“Why must we fuck ourselves?” rhetorically asked one GOP official, who, like others in this article, was granted anonymity to speak openly about their concerns with the White House’s economic agenda. “He should’ve gotten congressional approval. Now it’s destabilized the economy.”

Before the ruling, while Congressional Republicans had occasionally grumbled about the policy, they had largely fallen in line when actually required to vote on it. Now, the Supreme Court’s decision could put more pressure on them to break with the president.

“You have so much overlap between people who support the president, and people who are hurt worst by the tariffs themselves,” said one longtime GOP strategist in Iowa. “That’s why the criticism has always been somewhat muted.”

Democratic candidates are quickly taking advantage of that. DCCC spokesperson Courtney Rice said the decision “makes crystal clear the need for Congress to exercise its constitutional authority over trade policy.”

Abdul El-Sayed, a Democrat running for Senate in Michigan, said “the damage has already been done” by the tariffs. And Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.), running for Senate, released a statement saying his opponents “are running to push Donald Trump’s agenda,” whereas he will work to “rectify the damage that Trump’s tariffs have caused our state.”

Even historically protectionist-leaning Democrats took shots at Trump. Former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said in the ruling’s wake that his opponent, Sen. John Husted (R-Ohio), was “once again doubling down on his support for reckless tariffs that are raising costs and sending Ohio farmers into bankruptcy.” (Husted, for his part, said in a statement that he respects the court’s decision.)

“Not only do voters hate these tariffs because they’ve raised costs, but now the Supreme Court has said they’re illegal,” said Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson. “Every Republican in 2026 has a Scarlett ‘T’ on their chest.”

Some Republicans had already publicly questioned the president’s authority to unilaterally impose blanket duties on trading partners without seeking approval from Congress. For them, the ruling proved a win on constitutional grounds.

“I feel vindicated as I’ve been saying this for the last 12 months,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) on X, one of the few House Republicans who has repeatedly opposed Trump’s tariffs. “In the future, Congress should defend its own authorities and not rely on the Supreme Court.”

Six House Republicans voted alongside Democrats last week to condemn Trump’s tariffs on Canada, sending the measure to the Senate, which has already seen significant GOP defection in other votes on the duty measures. Senior House Democrats have vowed to bring up at least three more similar resolutions that will force GOP members to choose between their adherence to free trade principles and their MAGA base.

“There are a lot of members of Congress excited to see that the tariffs are temporarily not in effect. It has been a pinch at home and it’s been hard to message around,” added one Republican strategist involved with House races. “It gives them some breathing room. It gives them a little bit more leeway in that affordability message.”

In agriculture-heavy states, the tariffs have been felt acutely in recent months. The Trump administration approved a $12 billion bailout for farmers in December and Hill Republicans are considering a second tranche, though that has yet to pass.

American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall — a frequent ally of Trump’s — released a statement Friday afternoon urging Trump to pump the brakes.

“With supply costs already at or near record highs, we strongly encourage the president to avoid using any other available authorities to impose tariffs on agricultural inputs that would further increase costs,” Duvall said. “America’s farmers and ranchers need stability to ensure families across America can put food on their tables.”

It’s a long time until November’s midterms. But in battleground races where tariffs pinched the most, the recent memory of trade adventurism and the ongoing dissatisfaction with the current state of the economy could prove fatal for Republicans, said Wisconsin-based GOP strategist Craig Peterson.

“In this last year with all the tariffs and increased costs, it’s going to take a little while for folks to forget about that,” Peterson said, noting Election Day is less than nine months away. “That’s not real long, unfortunately, for the Republicans.”

Erin Doherty, Elena Schneider, Lisa Kashinsky and Adam Wren contributed reporting.

Politics

Democrats sweep Texas

Published

2 hours ago

November 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

AUSTIN — Democrats’ vision of a blue Texas is finally here.

James Talarico has been elected a U.S. senator and Gina Hinojosa as governor, the first Democrats to win either office in more than a generation. The four other statewide candidates are leading as ballots continue to be counted. Democrats further down the ballot are leading some red districts, changing the complexion of the state legislature, congressional delegation and courts.

“It’s something that I haven’t seen in decades, that none of us have seen in decades,” said former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, a moderate Republican.

It’s an outcome that even the most bullish Democrats didn’t dare enunciate in the late days of the election. But as results have poured in Tuesday night, the party is outpacing its expectations across the country’s second most populous state amidst a national romp.

Both Hinojosa’s and Talarico’s victory margins came by running up vote counts in Texas’ deep-blue urban centers and while also leading in the largest Republican-led county in the country, Tarrant County. They reversed Republican gains across the Latino-heavy Rio Grande Valley region, an ancestrally Democratic area that had swung hard to the right in recent years. Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez romped to a near-20 point victory in a seat Republicans drew to favor them during last year’s redrawing of the state’s House map, ousting a top Republican recruit who campaigned alongside Speaker Mike Johnson to begin election day.

It amounts to a set of remarkable results in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1988 and to the governor’s mansion since 1990. In recent cycles, Democrats have tried and failed to flip the state in presidential and U.S. Senate contests but have been largely uncompetitive for state offices. But Tuesday’s blue wave slammed into Texas particularly hard, as it combined frustrations over the economy, immigration enforcement, data centers and corruption with a collapse of Trump’s 2024 coalition.

“We reminded voters that Republicans have been in charge in Texas for 30 years. That every problem we have, was caused by Republicans,” Michelle Lowe Solis, chair of the Bexar County Democratic Party. “They aren’t going to fix the problems, they caused them.”

As votes continue to be counted, Democrats appear poised to blunt the impact of Republicans’ attempted gerrymander, likely sweeping the Rio Grande Valley congressional seats while holding onto another San Antonio-area district drawn to favor Republicans. In state Supreme Court races, they lead in all four seats up for grabs, potentially turning a 9-0 conservative majority into a 5-4 split. Among the first 36 state house races called by the Associated Press, 34 have gone to Democrats and just two to Republicans.“Voters aren’t dumb,” said Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ BOLD PAC. “Even though the Republicans have tried to cheat with the series of gerrymanders, that has, I think, only made voters in those areas more willing to participate.”

Talarico’s and Hinojosa’s victories will be felt nationally. Texas Democrats, who have long asked for national money and resources in a state where elections are costly, now have a test case of how to win. And it will bolster their arguments that their state, with 40 electoral votes, should be treated as a presidential battleground.

Ali Bianco and Jonathan Martin contributed reporting.

Politics

The blue wave is cresting: GOP braces for midterm wipeout

Published

2 hours ago

November 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Just a few hours into election night, Republicans acknowledged what appeared to be a historic midterm defeat — a long-feared “blue wave” that had started washing across the nation.

The extent of the washout became clear soon after polls closed: Republicans lost a South Carolina Senate seat for the first time in nearly 30 years. Democrats nipped on the heels of House incumbents in deep red Florida districts. And the man in charge of the party’s House reelection effort was at grave risk of losing his own seat.

By 10 p.m., Democrats had already flipped three GOP House seats — itself enough to win a majority if Republicans can’t make gains elsewhere — and many in the party feared dozens more could follow as voters registered their dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump.

Voters in Texas, a ruby-red state for a generation, appeared at risk of handing multiple statewide races to Republicans and possible control of the legislature. Joe Straus, a former state House speaker, cast it as a historic rebuke of an unpopular president.

“President Trump hasn’t exactly done any Republicans favors across the country,” he said on a Blue Light News election night broadcast. “They haven’t done themselves favors, frankly, by following so closely along.”

Many of the political professionals charged with getting GOP candidates elected in this environment said the results could be potentially historic in nature.

“We are looking at tsunami territory,” said one national Republican operative who, like others, was granted anonymity to candidly describe the returns.

“This is the worst electoral defeat in my lifetime and likely in history,” said another GOP operative working on battleground races. “Trump said his name and record was on the ballot and people responded — resoundingly.”

At an ill-fated victory party for Senate candidate Michael Whatley in North Carolina, staff were already packing up the room less than two hours after polls closed. Returns showed Democrat Roy Cooper on track to win by as many as 20 points in a race that was supposed to have been tooth-and-nail.

Standing in the room, one North Carolina Republican openly pondered what many others in the party had long avoided saying openly — that it was finally time to think about life after Trump.

“Trump has done some excellent things, and I appreciate that. But it can’t be the party of Trump forever,” said Jonathan Fletcher, a former GOP county chair. “If the Republican Party is going to be serious about winning, we have to be serious about winning people in the middle.”

Nearly every state, district and county shows movement toward Democrats, from counties that Trump won three times to blue strongholds where Democrats are improving their margins. County-level data shows Democrats doing on average more than 5 points better than Kamala Harris did in the 2024 presidential race.

That suggests that districts Trump won by double digits just two years ago are in reach for Democrats.

The losses threatened to pile up even after Republican candidates, committees and super PACs spent massive sums in an effort to retain control of Congress — including more than $380 million from President Donald Trump’s political operation.

“I can’t believe how these House races aren’t close given the amount spent,” a senior Senate GOP operative said. Another senior Senate GOP official called it a “bloodbath.”

Many of the Republicans said the war in Iran, which sent voters’ gas prices soaring, and continued frustration with the economy drove frustration with a party that won on those same issues in 2024.

On top of that some quickly vented about substandard candidates — such as Darline Graham in the South Carolina Senate race and Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate contest.

“Not only were folks upset about the war, inflation and gas prices, but add to that the fact they think he was making them eat a shit sandwich in Darline, and they just had enough,” said Mick Mulvaney, a former Trump White House chief of staff and South Carolina congressman.

Trump said on Truth Social his own absence from the ballot for the drastic Republican underperformance — even after barnstorming the country begging Republicans to “vote like I’m on the ballot.”

“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” Trump posted shortly after 10:30 p.m.

Other Republicans were ready to blame Trump’s own decisions.

“Republicans got their asses kicked tonight because of the Iran war — plain and simple. Everything else is just noise and spin,” said a person close to the White House.

Meanwhile, power in Washington was already shifting. The likely next chair of the House Oversight Committee, who has been gearing up for massive probes into the Trump administration, issued a two-word statement Tuesday addressed to administration officials and the “Trump Crime Family.”

“Lawyer up,” Rep. Robert Garcia of California said.

Will Steakin, Erin Doherty, Lauren Fedor, Ashley Ahn and Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.

Politics

Biden’s revenge: His alumni are winning in the midterms

Published

3 hours ago

November 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Joe Biden was unceremoniously ushered out of the White House two years ago.

On Tuesday, he got a small measure of revenge.

Prominent Biden administration alumni are winning in a handful of notable races, with Keisha Lance Bottoms — the one-time Atlanta mayor turned Biden’s senior adviser and director of the Office of Public Engagement — leading the pack by flipping Georgia’s governorship.

The victories, his former staffers say, are an important part of rehabilitating his legacy within a Democratic Party that all but banished him in 2024.

“It’s proof that President Biden assembled a talented team of public servants — who the public is calling on now to help turn this country around,” said Ron Klain, Biden’s former chief of staff. “These fantastic men and women will make life more affordable, health care more available, protect our rights, fight corruption, and make our country stronger.”

Biden was not a regular on the trail this year, and most Democrats kept their distance from the former president. But he did weigh in on a handful of primaries, helping put loyal lieutenants in front of voters who still held him in high regard.

While Bottoms was the highest profile victory, there’s a number of Biden alumni also poised to head to Washington. Gabe Amo, who won a 2023 special election in a blue Rhode Island seat, secured his first full term in Congress. And Dan Koh, who won Massachusetts’ 6th District to succeed Rep. Seth Moulton, was Biden’s deputy Cabinet secretary and deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

He leaned into his Biden endorsement throughout the campaign and this week reposted a video of a phone call he and his family had with Joe and Jill Biden on primary night in September.

“Mr. President and Madame first lady, thank you so much for all of your support,” he told them. “It wouldn’t have been possible without both of you. … You changed my life by giving me a job of a lifetime. And you got my back the minute I decided to run.”

Biden’s Cabinet also had a strong night in other governor races. Xavier Becerra, Biden’s secretary of Health and Human Services, had a solid polling lead over Republican Steve Hilton in the race to be California’s next governor going into Tuesday. And, Deb Haaland, Biden’s Interior secretary, was projected to win the New Mexico governor race.

“In his farewell speech, President Biden warned that ‘an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy,’” said Andrew Bates, the former president’s longtime spokesperson. “He urged his team and supporters to keep standing up for the values that we all care about, including decency, hard work, and a sense of national community. On the ballot and off, a whole lot of his alumni are fighting to carry on that legacy.”