The GOP’s Audacious Midterm Strategy
by David Catron
It is no longer debatable that President Trump’s second term is remarkable for its historic and rapid accomplishments. During the first six months of 2025, he has secured the southern border, brought prices down on energy and food, begun deporting violent illegal immigrants, used tariffs to produce the first monthly budget surplus the nation has seen in years, made his 2017 tax cut permanent by signing the “Big Beautiful Bill” into law, ad infinitum. There’s little reason to expect this momentum to slow down in the rest of Trump’s term unless the Democrats win the House of Representatives in 2026.
Unfortunately, despite the ongoing turmoil within “the Party of Jefferson and Jackson,” it is quite possible that they can net enough seats in the midterms to overcome the tiny majority by which the GOP now holds on to power. If the Democrats are successful they will not merely obstruct the President’s agenda, they are all but certain to find some pretext to impeach Trump for a third time. In order to prevent that, the Republicans will need to defy history. The President’s party almost always loses House seats in the midterms. Consequently, the Republicans have a bold strategy that includes redistricting two states before the midterms.
Both Texas and Ohio will attempt to reconfigure their congressional maps in ways that will very likely increase each state’s Republican House delegation. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbot has called a special session of the state’s legislature to address measures related to the disastrous Kerr County flood, but he has also included items on the agenda that are all but certain to result in changes to the district map. The special session is scheduled to begin on July 21.The current House delegation for Texas includes 25 Republican and 12 Democrats. The usual media suspects have inevitably implied skulduggery. CNN offered the following take:
It is rare for states to undertake a mid-decade redistricting without a court order to do so. But Texas is one of two states where Republicans are pushing to change congressional districts this year in the hopes of ousting several longtime Democratic lawmakers. Some Republicans are hoping new maps in Texas could result in the GOP picking up as many as five additional seats to shore up their chances of retaining the House majority … Targets for Republicans are expected to include Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, who represent border communities.
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https://spectator.org/the-gops-audacious-midterm-strategy/
