John Jefferson
The returning head of the House Republican campaign committee says President-elect Trump’s convincing 2024 White House victory gives the GOP plenty of home field advantage as the party aims to defend its razor-thin majority in the 2026 midterm elections.
“The battlefield is really laying out to our advantage. There are 14 Democrats who won seats also carried by Donald Trump. There are only three Republicans in seats that were carried by Kamala Harris. So that tells me we’re going to be on offense,” National Republican Congressional Committee chair Rep. Richard Hudson emphasized in a recent Fox News Digital interview.
Trump carried all seven crucial battleground states and, for the first time in three presidential elections, won the national popular vote as he defeated Vice President Harris last month.
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The Republicans also flipped control of the Senate from the Democrats, and even though they had a net loss of two seats in the 435-member House, they’ll hold a fragile 220-215 majority when the new Congress convenes next month.
Eight years ago, when Trump first won the White House and the GOP held onto their House majority, Democrats targeted roughly two-dozen Republicans in the 2018 midterms in districts Trump lost in the 2016 election.
The Democrats, in a blue-wave election, were successful in flipping the House majority.
Fast-forward eight years, and it’s a different story, as this time Republicans will be defending seats on friendly turf in districts that the president-elect carried.
“There’s a whole lot more opportunity for us to go on offense,” Hudson, who’s represented a congressional district in central North Carolina for a dozen years, touted.
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Hudson also made the case that House Republicans who will once again be targeted by the Democrats in the upcoming election cycle are “really battle tested. I mean, they’re folks who’ve been through the fire before. They’ve gone through several cycles now with millions of dollars spent against them.”
“They’ve been able to succeed because they work very hard in their districts. They’ve established very strong brands, as you know, people who know how to get things done and how to deliver for their community,” he emphasized. “The Republicans who are in tough seats are our best candidates.”
The three House Republicans who are in districts that Harris carried last month are Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, and Mike Lawler of New York.
But there will be a big difference in 2026: Trump, who helped drive low propensity voters to the polls this year, won’t be on the ballot in the 2026 midterms.
“I certainly would rather have him on the ballot because he turns out voters that don’t come out for other candidates,” Hudson acknowledged.
But he argued, “If you look at the way this race is shaping up, we campaigned on a key set of issues of things that we promised we would deliver. If we deliver those things and have Donald Trump there with us campaigning with our candidates, I believe we can drive out a higher percentage of those voters than we have in midterms in the past.”
Hudson said Trump “was a great partner” with House Republicans this year and will be again in the upcoming election cycle.
“[Trump] cares deeply about having a House majority because he understands that a Democrat House majority means his agenda comes to a grinding halt. And so he’s been very engaged, was a very good partner for us this last election, and I anticipate that continuing.”
Hudson, who is returning for a second straight cycle chairing the NRCC, said that at the top of his committee to-do list are candidate recruitment and fundraising.
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“I mean, first thing, we’ve got to go out and recruit candidates. You know, candidate quality matters. And then we’ve got to go raise the money. And so I’ll be on the road and be out there helping our incumbents. But I’m looking forward to it,” he emphasized.
Fox News’ Emma Woodhead contributed to this report
Editors note: Fox News Digital also interviewed Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington. That report will be posted on Friday.
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