Democrats Face Midterm Disappointment

[mystery-ak]

Democrats Face Midterm Disappointment
Daniel McCarthy | 10:07 PM on May 18, 2026

As they look to the midterm elections, Republicans have reason to worry — but not despair.

They're going to be fighting uphill all the way to hold onto their majority in the House, which they currently control by the razor-thin margin of just six seats.

That includes one member, California Rep. Kevin Kiley, who officially left the GOP but still caucuses with the party.

"Fragile" hardly does justice to the state of the GOP's House majority.

Democrats look at President Donald Trump's approval ratings and exult:

As of early May, exactly six months before the midterms, Trump's approval in the RealClearPolitics polling averages was an anemic 40.7%, and since then polls have shown him slipping further.

Democrats took more than 40 House seats from the GOP in the 2018 midterms, when Trump's numbers were a little better: RealClear's aggregate notched him at 43.6% approval the day before the election.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is just counting down the days until he becomes speaker.

What could go wrong?

more
https://pjmedia.com/daniel-mccarthy/2026/05/18/democrats-face-midterm-disappointment-n4953007

[Fishrrman]

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorways
Don't block up the halls
For he who gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it's ragin'
It will soon shake you windows
And rattle your walls
For the times, they are a-changin'

(typed directly from old memories...)

[libertybele]

Ok, I'll try to remain positive on this and have the outlook that the DEMS are going to lose BIGLY in the mid-terms, but then well, you know, reality sets in.  I hope that this turns out to be true.

[Smokin Joe]

I think the POTUS approval poll is overrated for this purpose (except to push a twisted sort of bandwagon effect).

I didn't vote for Trump to be my Congressional Representative in either the House or the Senate. He wasn't running for that job. He wasn't running for Governor of my State, nor any of those other offices that work to make things happen at the State or local level.

I think that the Democrats are underestimating the actual focus on the candidates for Congress, especially in districts where it is obvious that incumbents just haven't been listening to the people and have been marching in lockstep with people who want to fund fraud, go soft on crime, open the borders, and who basically embrace policies that led to the actual mechanics of Bidenomics and the theft of (hundreds of?) Billions of dollars from the public coffers through fraud, NGOs, and a host of other cut-outs that amounted to money laundering and wholesale corruption. That includes the response to COVID as well.

Trump may be the de facto face of the Republican party by virtue of being POTUS, but the people running for Representative, Senator, Governor, and a host of other offices are the ones who either haven't been doing their jobs, have done them at least passably well (and better than other potential alternatives), or are trying to get a shot at truly representing their possible future constituents (at least until 'Beltway Fever' sets in).

What Trump does really has little direct effect on the way your representatives will represent you, your fraction of America and its needs and wants--which may vary greatly from the overall National Agenda set by any POTUS. You aren't hiring them for Trump (or against him), you are hiring them for you, to represent you, and let the chips fall where they may.