Republicans acknowledge voters rejected them but show little appetite
for breaking with Trump
[November 14, 2026]
By STEVEN SLOAN, JOEY CAPPELLETTI and LISA MASCARO
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Richard Hudson wanted a triumphant return to
Capitol Hill this week after steering Republicans to another majority.
Instead, the North Carolina Republican is facing the reality that he and
dozens of colleagues will soon clear out their offices.
“It was really people coming out to send a message,” Hudson, the chair
of the House GOP's campaign arm, said in a brief interview. “They,
rightly so, felt gas was too high, things were too expensive.”
“The mistake Republicans made,” he said, “is we didn't convey to them
that we cared about that and cared about them.”
Back in Washington this week for the first time since the GOP’s sweeping
midterm losses, Republicans were in something of a daze. Even as they
acknowledged the depth of their defeat, there was little appetite for a
wholesale break from President Donald Trump.
Instead, they met behind closed doors to talk about what went wrong. And
they scrutinized the calendar to figure out how to push through as much
of their agenda as possible before Democrats assume control of the House
and the Senate in January.
There’s little appetite for a full break with Trump
There was widespread frustration that Republicans who were awarded full
control of the White House and Congress just two years earlier had lost
touch with voters.
“You cut rural healthcare spending, when you abandon pro-lifers, when
you abandon the poor, when you abandon the needy, when you abandon
working people, you’re gonna get your butt kicked,” said Sen. Josh
Hawley, R-Mo., who unsuccessfully sought to delay his party’s leadership
elections in the Senate. “And you’re gonna deserve it.”
“We collectively failed,” said Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., who is
trailing her Democratic challenger in a district that Republicans
carried by more than 18 percentage points in 2024.
“It’s very clear,” she said. “The American people let us know we have
failed in this governing experience for this Congress.”
The anger is sharp in part because of the rosy predictions from top
Republicans ahead of the election. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., who is
also trailing a Democratic rival, said people kept telling her she
couldn't lose. But she knew otherwise.
“I couldn’t get anybody to listen to me,” she said. “People just didn't
think it could happen, but we knew it could.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson spent the final stretch of the campaign
rejecting the historic headwinds that often befall a president's party
during a midterm. He toured the country, insisting the polls were wrong
and Republicans would retain their majority even as some incumbents were
skeptical.
Back on Capitol Hill this week, Johnson said voters made the “wrong
choice” as Democrats flipped more than 40 Republican-held seats. That
puts the Democrats on track to hold the most robust majority since the
early years of Barack Obama's presidency.
The House and the Senate take different approaches
Republicans, meanwhile, are weighing how to proceed, balancing calls for
moderation against an impulse for hard-line positions that might
reenergize the party's base. Each chamber took different tracks,
previewing divisions that may lie ahead.
In the House, the Republicans who will remain in Washington next year
largely represent staunchly conservative districts where Trump remains
popular. Their decision to elect Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan as their next
leader reflected a fighting stance.
Jordan is a co-founder of the conservative House Freedom Caucus,
currently chairs the Judiciary Committee and has previously chaired the
Oversight Committee. From those positions, he's waged heated fights
against Democrats and become a top Trump ally.
“The way that Jim fights says a lot about where this conference is,”
said Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla.
[to top of second column]
|
Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., speaks at the Republican convention,
Sept. 10, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
In the Senate, the desire for combat was less intense.
The question for Republicans there was less about whether they would
stick with John Thune of South Dakota as their leader than when they
would make that decision. Hawley and a small group of conservatives
spent hours huddled with Republicans in the Old Senate Chamber
arguing for a delay in leadership elections to allow the party to
consider alternative candidates.
But the problem was that no one would come forward to offer
themselves as an alternative to Thune, who has faced criticism from
Trump at times for his refusal to abandon Senate rules to make it
easier to pass conservative legislation.
“It's a bad job,” Hawley said.
After hours of deliberation, Republicans ultimately backed Thune
without so much as a voice vote.
“We're going to let our leader be the leader,” said Sen. Bernie
Moreno, R-Ohio, who was also elected to lead the party's effort to
regain seats in the 2028 election.
GOP unites to protect Hegseth
Perhaps the biggest question for Republicans going forward is how to
manage their relationship with Trump, whose policies on trade and
the war in Iran helped contribute to their losses. He's in the last
two years of his second term, and the election defeats have raised
stark questions about the durability of his Make America Great Again
movement.
But there was no rush to distance themselves from the president as
House Republicans, even those who have been critical of his
administration, overwhelmingly blocked an effort to impeach Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Only Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who led the push alongside
Democrats, broke ranks.
“What I found out tonight is they still haven’t broken from the
spell of Donald Trump,” Massie said after the vote. “He still
controls this conference.”
When asked whether the election was a referendum on Trump, Thune
said the results stemmed from “a combination of things,” refusing to
directly blame the president for contributing to the party's
challenges.
Signs of Trump's influence
But there were signs that Trump's influence had limits.
Few echoed his argument in a social media post this week that there
were problems with the election. In conceding a closely fought
Senate contest in Mississippi, Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith said
she would “respect the decision” of voters.
Several Republicans, including Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Tim Scott
of South Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas and Rep. Mike Lawler of
New York, posted pictures of Democrats who will either succeed them
or soon represent their states, harkening to an earlier era of
postelection unity.
Rep. James Comer of Kentucky pushed back against White House
warnings to congressional Democrats that planned probes of the Trump
administration could amount to “blatant criminality.” Comer, who
oversaw extensive investigations of Democratic President Joe Biden
and his family as chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said
lawmakers have a role in holding any White House accountable.
“Regardless of who is in the White House, there’s always going to be
a strong desire for the Oversight Committee to be a check and
balance on the executive branch, regardless of the political
scenario,” Comer said.
___
Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
