U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he arrives to deliver remarks on the U.S. economy and affordability at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, U.S. December 9, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Republicans had another series of election losses on Tuesday as the Miami mayoral seat flipped to a Democrat for the first time in 30 years. And one longtime Republican activist and podcaster is trying to get his party to wake up
Erick Erickson, who lives in Georgia, pointed to “a very safe seat” that Republicans lost to a Democrat in the Georgia State House. He warned on X that “alarm bells are going off everywhere for the GOP” even as the party “doubles down on what the voters are rejecting.”
That same sentiment is lending hope to The Bulwark's Bill Kristol.
In his Wednesday column, Kristol agreed that a Georgia district carried by Trump in 2024 by 12 points was part of a bad omen for the president's party. The GOP candidate even raised more campaign cash, and still lost the race.
This adds to huge failures for Republicans in Virginia and New Jersey, which handed larger majorities to Democrats as well as statewide offices.
"So, in repeated results over the last five weeks, we’ve seen Democrats running about ten points ahead of their 2024 results," Kristol said. "Not coincidentally, an average of current polling shows Donald Trump’s approval at about 42 percent, almost ten points behind his approval when he was sworn in almost eleven months ago. (His net approval rating has fallen by some 24 points, from +12 to -12.)"
Kristol argued that Republicans’ fate in 2026 will largely depend on whether Trump’s approval rebounds. If it doesn't, he predicted "Democrats should do well — or, more pointedly, Republicans should do poorly."
In fact, he wrote, if Trump’s approval slides into the 30s, Democrats could make significant gains next November.
The goal, he continued, will be to continue highlighting the GOP's failures to rescue Americans during a struggling economy and hand out tax cuts for private jets while making cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act.
It will all come down to normal Americans willing to fight back, Kristol said, complaining that those in power are too afraid to push back.
"Our elites — from Republican senators to business big shots to reputable civic leaders — seem less willing than the people to turn against Trump. Among the elites, accommodation is still outstripping resistance. The acquiescence of the powerful and the cowardice of the fortunate in the face of Trumpism are pushing me to my own version of Horatian disgust: Odi timidos electos. I do kind of hate the cowardly elites," Kristol said.