Politics

Republicans to Trump: We need you on the campaign trail

Published

7 months ago

November 18, 2025

Fresh off their staggering electoral losses this month, Republicans are urging President Donald Trump to start hitting the campaign trail for them next year with control of Congress on the line.

And in a sign of their rising anxiety over Democrats’ renewed enthusiasm, the requests for rallies have started rolling in.

Wisconsin GOP Chair Brian Schimming said Trump’s team is “certainly aware” he wants to see the president visit the purple state next year, where he won by his thinnest margin in 2024 and his party is defending two competitive House seats and trying to win statewide races. Schimming plans to reup his ask when visiting Washington this week. In Tennessee, where Democrats are working to flip a House seat in a special election next month, Republican Matt Van Epps’ campaign requested the president hold an in-person rally in the deep-red district he won by 20 points last year. (Trump held a tele-rally for Van Epps last Thursday night.) Rep. Derrick Van Orden has told Trump he wants the president to campaign with him in his western Wisconsin swing district next year.

Depressed turnout is a persistent problem in non-presidential years. And Republicans acknowledge that Trump, whose approval ratings are underwater, can be a liability as well as an asset.

But he remains a singular motivator for the MAGA base, according to interviews with 11 Republican Party chairs, officials and operatives across the Rust and Sun Belt states. They said Republicans must step up their voter-outreach efforts heading into the midterms, when Democrats need only to net three House seats to regain control of the lower chamber. And they’re looking to Trump to be their triple threat — with his trademark rallies, endorsements and deep campaign coffers.

By comparison, Trump largely avoided campaigning for Republicans in this month’s off-cycle elections, later blaming poor candidate quality for the party’s withering defeats. He avoided showing up in New Jersey, where GOP gubernatorial contender Jack Ciattarelli was projected to lose by a slim margin and ended up getting routed by double digits. He never uttered the name of the Virginia Republican candidate for governor, who lost by nearly 16 points. And he lagged miles behind California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s fundraising juggernaut that helped propel a Democrat-backed redistricting measure to swift victory.

Now, even as the GOP descends into in-fighting over the release of files connected to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and state-level Republicans throughout the country buck Trump’s redistricting push, his party is clamoring for ever more of the president.

“Trump is the ace in the hole,” said Tom Eddy, the Republican chair in Erie County, Pa., a presidential bellwether Trump won in 2016 and 2024, but where Democrats swept key local races earlier this month. “It’s a matter of which party is more motivated. And right now, obviously, the Democrats are.”

A Republican strategist who works on North Carolina races, granted anonymity to speak candidly, painted a dire portrait of the party’s stakes as Democrat Roy Cooper makes the party’s best shot at flipping a Senate seat next year.

“Any Republican not preparing for a turnout challenge in 2026 is whistling by the graveyard,” the strategist said. “If Trump is on the ballot, Republican turnout is strong. And if he’s not, it craters. It collapses. There’s an entire group of people who are Trump voters, but Trump alone. There seems to be no way to get them to the ballot.”

James Blair, Trump’s top political director, said on a post-election episode of Blue Light News’s “The Conversation” that the president will be “far more involved in the midterms.” Trump has already endorsed the majority of House incumbents and across many Senate races, though he’s yet to clear the field in Texas, Georgia and New Hampshire, where fierce primaries are underway. Two of his top political operatives — Trump 2024 co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita and pollster Tony Fabrizio — are advising campaigns across the country.

“With a lot of campaigning next year, with a lot of resources in the right districts for the right candidates,” Republicans’ turnout woes are “an overcomeable problem,” Blair said on “The Conversation.”

Blair cautioned that victory shouldn’t be entirely Trump’s responsibility, adding, “The president will campaign a lot to get people out” but “candidates still have to connect with these voters, too.”

Blair, LaCivita and a White House spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Republicans brushed aside Trump’s recent hands-off approach, noting the party lost in blue-leaning states where the president is unpopular. But they saw warning signs in the margins. Turnout data shows Republicans lost ground in the places that voted most for Trump last year, suggesting his voters were less likely to cast ballots outside of a presidential year.

Across Virginia, in precincts where Trump won at least 80 percent of the vote in 2024, turnout this year fell below 70 percent of last year’s levels, according to a Blue Light News breakdown of the results. Statewide, that figure was 77 percent.

In southwest Virginia’s Buchanan County, where Trump won more than 85 percent of the vote, turnout for the gubernatorial election was less than 60 percent of the prior year. Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger received about 73 percent of former Vice President Kamala Harris’ vote total while GOP Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears got just 57 percent of the votes Trump had received.

Republicans shrugged off Earle-Sears as a weak candidate and attributed the results to typical swings toward the opposition party in off-year elections. But as Trump himself has suggested, it indicates Republicans have yet to figure out how to replicate his coalition when he’s not on the ballot.

Republican officials and operatives say Trump is still the “biggest base motivator” they have — a nod to his singularity and to the uncertainty of who else in the GOP has the gravitas to command his MAGA movement.

“We’ve got to make it clear what the stakes of it are — because they don’t want to go back to another Joe Biden,” Schimming said, acknowledging the party’s challenge in reaching irregular voters.

Republicans across battleground states are working to remind their voters of economic pain under the Biden administration — and warning that Democratic control of even one chamber of Congress could lead to investigations that could distract from, if not derail, Trump’s agenda.

They’re also pushing early voting as a way to reach lower-propensity voters and to keep them engaged outside presidential cycles, even as Trump tries to end the practice.

Republicans acknowledge some candidates would benefit from distancing themselves from the president on unpopular policies, like cutting health care benefits and imposing tariffs, in a midterm election that will serve as a referendum on his second term. Their concerns hark back to 2018, when Democrats picked up 40 House seats in a repudiation of Trump’s first term.

After Democrats rode affordability messaging to wins in last week’s elections, Republicans said they need to stay focused on cutting costs. To that end, the White House laid out in a Friday memo how the administration is working to lower prices.

Some Republicans also said Trump needs to focus less on his grievances, like putting millions of dollars from his political operation into primarying GOP Rep. Thomas Massie in a safe seat in Kentucky over the lawmaker’s opposition to Republicans’ megalaw and his push to release the Justice Department files on Epstein.

“Don’t waste your time going after Thomas Massie,” said Todd Gillman, a Republican Party district chair in Michigan, where the GOP is looking to snag the Senate seat being left open by retiring Democrat Gary Peters, hold the House seat Rep. John James is leaving to run for governor and wrest back control of statewide offices.

Instead, he said, “come to Michigan and fight for John James’ seat so we don’t lose it.”

Jessica Piper, Elena Schneider, Andrew Howard, Sam Benson and Liz Crampton contributed to this report.

Politics

Alaska Supreme Court says man with same name as Sen. Dan Sullivan can be on primary ballot

Published

4 minutes ago

June 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Jun. 30, 2026, 5:12 AM EDT

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Supreme Court ruled Monday that a man with the same nameand party affiliation as Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan is qualified to run for the seat and ordered elections officials to place him on the August primary ballot.

The ruling came hours after the court heard arguments and just days after state court Judge Thomas Matthews found the Division of Elections had “abused its discretion”in booting the challenger Sullivan from the ballot. The Supreme Court, in a brief ruling, affirmed Matthews’ decision to include the challenger on the ballot but sent back to the division the issue of how he should be listed as a candidate “within the confines of existing Alaska ballot design law.”

The court said a full opinion explaining its decision would be released later.

Jeffrey Robinson, an attorney for the challenger Sullivan, expressed gratitude for the ruling and said he expected the division “will act in full compliance” with ballot design law in preparing the ballots. Sam Curtis, a spokesperson for the state Department of Law, said the state appreciated the quick ruling “and will work to implement the order.”

Nate Adams, a spokesperson for Sen. Sullivan’s campaign, said while disappointed by the ruling, the campaign is encouraged that Beecher “will be able to use her expertise to differentiate between the Petersburg fraud and the incumbent — Senator Dan Sullivan — to the benefit of Alaska voters.”

Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher issued a decision June 15 finding the challenger’s candidacy was not filed in good faith and instead was done with an intent to confuse voters. But Matthews said Beecher’s decision was not based on the requirements set out by the U.S. Constitution to serve in the Senate — which address age, citizenship and residency — or on state laws or regulations.

Alaska’s US Senate race could help determine control of chamber

The dust-up over the two Dan Sullivans began with the challenger filing his candidacy about a month ago and has roiled one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country. Alaska’s race is one of about a half dozen Senate contests that are considered competitive and could determine control of the chamber for President Donald Trump’s final two years in office.

The candidate filing prompted accusations by the senator and his alliesincluding the National Republican Senatorial Committee, that the challenger is a sham candidate intent on sowing chaos. Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who oversees elections, responded by announcing an investigation into the challenger’s candidacy.

Two complaints raising questions about his party affiliation and motives were filed by the Alaska Republican Party chair.

The senator also accused the challenger Sullivan of working with Democrats and the campaign of Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola to cause confusion. Peltola’s campaign and state Democrats have denied the allegation, as has the challenger, who said the decision to run was “my choice.”

Peltola is seen as the senator’s main rival in the race, which features more than a dozen candidates.

The top four vote-getters in the primary, regardless of party affiliation, advance to a ranked choice general election in November.

The challenger Sullivan, 69, a retired teacher from the small fishing community of Petersburg, told The Associated Press on Monday he had grown frustrated with the incumbent and thought the timing for a run was right. “I just decided it was something I needed to do,” he said. “I will find out if it was the right thing or not, but I’m going to give it a shot.”

He said he aims to pull votes from the senator, as any challenger would. “But no, I’m not trying to trick people,” he told the AP.

Arguments before the state Supreme Court

Attorneys for the challenger Sullivanin filings before the state Supreme Court, said the elections division disqualified their client “because of what it thought were his reasons for running.” They called the good-faith standard applied by Beecher “legally unsupportable.”

Matthews agreed in his decision Friday to allow Sullivan on the ballot, saying, the elections division determination “was based upon a new, previously unstated, ‘good-faith’ criteria.”

Beecher, in disqualifying the challenger Sullivan, said he had registered to vote as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. and in conjunction with his candidacy changed his party affiliation to Republican, an affiliation he did not previously had. She cited similarities between his campaign website and the senator’s, and his work with a consultant whose clients have included some Democrats. She did not mention finding any evidence of coordination.

Attorneys general from 14 Republican-led states submitted a brief supporting the division and asking the state Supreme Court to keep the challenger Sullivan off the ballot.

The division initially certified both Sullivans as candidates, identifying the challenger as Dan J. Sullivan and the incumbent as Dan S. Sullivan.

Debate over ballot design

Attorneys representing the state, in their filings, said using a middle initial on the ballot would not be enough to help voters distinguish between the two Sullivans. They asked the court to uphold Beecher’s finding.

But if the court ordered the challenger Sullivan on the ballot, they proposed he be listed as Daniel James Sullivan Jr. with a nonpartisan party affiliation — arguing the division believed it could deny him being labeled a Republican since he had no prior affiliation with that party before running. The attorneys, led by outside counsel Christopher Murray, proposed in their brief that the senator be listed as Dan Sullivan, registered Republican and incumbent.

Attorneys for the challenger said any proposal to list their client as “nonpartisan” would be unlawful because Alaska law allows him to be listed according to his party preference. It proposed he be listed on the ballot as Dan J. Sullivan, a Republican.

They said the senator could ensure his supporters are aware of his middle initial and that the state’s candidate information pamphlet, which is sent to voters, also could help address any confusion.

At least one outside group supporting the senator has been running ads and sending political mailers referring to him as Sen. Dan S. Sullivan.

Politics

RFK Jr. says Cassidy accusing him of breaking promises ‘not true’

Published

2 hours ago

June 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

RFK Jr. says Cassidy accusing him of breaking promises ‘not true’

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday dismissed criticism from GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.) that he is breaking promises. Speaking to NewsNation’s Anna Kooiman in Atlantic City, N.J., Kennedy said he met with Cassidy roughly a month ago and told the Louisiana Republican his critiques are untrue…
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Politics

Key panel advances Johnson’s plan to merge SAVE America Act with NDAA

Published

2 hours ago

June 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Key panel advances Johnson’s plan to merge SAVE America Act with NDAA

The House Rules Committee on Monday advanced the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a must-pass defense bill, sending it to the floor for consideration. The committee reported out a rule along party lines by a vote of 8-4 that would merge the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act to the NDAA in a special…
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