The returning head of the House Republican campaign committee says that ‘the battlefield is really playing out to our advantage’ as he works to defend the GOP’s razor-thin majority in the chamber in the 2026 midterm elections.
While House Republicans held on to control of the House in November’s elections, the Democrats made gains, and the GOP will hold a fragile 220-215 majority when at full strength.
The party in power traditionally loses House seats in the ensuing midterm elections.
But thanks to President-elect Trump’s popular vote victory and sweep of all seven key battleground states as he won back the White House, National Republican Congressional Committee chair Rep. Richard Hudson looks forward to some home-field advantage on the campaign trail.
‘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,’ Hudson emphasized in a recent Fox News Digital interview.
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 that 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. And Hudson argues that home-field advantage will help the GOP cut through the traditional midterm headwinds.
‘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.
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 that 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.’
Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington State, chair of the rival Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, says she wants ‘to build on’ the ‘things we did right’ as she aims to win back the House majority Democrats lost in the 2022 midterms.
‘We won in tough districts, outperformed across the country,’ DelBene emphasized in a recent Fox News Digital interview.
DelBene, who is also sticking around for a second straight tour of duty steering her party’s House campaign committee, said that the 2024 successes are ‘a good example of what we need to continue to follow, heading into 2026.’
‘Number one, have great candidates who are independent-minded, focused on the needs of their communities,’ DelBene said as she listed her to-do list. ‘Those candidates and their voices were critically important in this election.’
DelBene said that ‘making sure that they [the candidates] have the resources they need to get information out to voters and to continue to address, head-on, the issues that are most important to their communities, lowering costs, making sure there’s economic opportunity’ are also top priorities.
With Trump returning to the White House and the GOP in control of both chambers of Congress, DelBene said Republicans are ‘going to be accountable for what they do in this country and the impact that has on working families.’
‘We’re going to hold them accountable for their votes and the actions they take, especially if they aren’t supporting working families,’ she emphasized. ‘I think people want to see governance work. So, if Republicans aren’t willing to work in a bipartisan way to get things done, that’s going to be a key part of the 2026 election as well.’
Looking to the 2026 map, DelBene touted that Democrats will have ‘opportunities across the country.’
And she said it’s the DCCC’s job to ‘reach voters where they are and make sure they’re getting accurate information about where our candidates stand.’
Fox News’ Emma Woodhead contributed to this report.