Republicans panicking as Trump's crumbling base threatens midterms

President Donald Trump returns to the White House, after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Washington, D.C., March 1, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Top Republicans are well aware of the problem tearing apart President Donald Trump's winning 2024 base, according to a new piece from The i Paper, and they are scrambling for a response ahead of the midterms.

Writing for the outlet on Sunday, journalist Sarah Baxter argued that should the GOP come up short in the midterms this year, losing their House majority and potentially the Senate as well, it will almost certainly be driven by one problem: Trump's racism. That, more than anything, has driven away most of the diverse coalition of voters he mustered in 2024 to win reelection.

Baxter also argued that the viral post from Bo French, "a Republican politician running for election to an obscure regulatory body called the Texas Railroad Commission," deriding South Asians celebrating a University of Texas football victory, has become emblematic of Trump's overall issues with race.

"Six weeks before the midterm elections, French’s post has become a symbol of the breakdown of Trump’s winning 2024 coalition of Hispanics, Asian-American, young and white working-class voters," Baxter wrote. "If the Republicans lose control of the House, and possibly the Senate, on 3 November, this will be why. According to a 2024 NBC exit poll, 46 per cent of Hispanics, 43 per cent of young voters under 30 and 40 per cent of Asian Americans voted for Donald Trump as president."

She continued: "All but the most MAGA, predominantly white voters are peeling away, according to a New York/Siena poll this week. This found that Hispanic voters favoured the Democrats by 43 points, young voters under 30 backed them by 35 points, while 'other non-white voters' supported the Democrats by 12 points."

Top Republicans, like GOP strategist and former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove, are well aware of the danger this crumbling base poses to the party's electability. Rove said that he would be voting Democrat for the first time ever in order to stop French. Baxter noted that Rove was instrumental in turning Texas into a GOP stronghold state, specifically by building support among Latino voters.

"There are ‘just asking questions’ Jew-haters, misogynists who worship hypermasculinity, conspiracy nuts seeking clicks for profit, and religious bigots who won’t differentiate between Muslim terrorists and Muslim American patriots," Rove wrote in a piece for the Wall Street Journal. "I’ll have no part of it. The GOP stables need cleaning."

"The conservative commentator Rod Dreher, a former friend of Vice President JD Vance, warned in the Free Press last year that up to 30-40 per cent of young Republican staffers in Washington were 'groypers' – fans and fellow travellers of Nick Fuentes, an avowed admirer of Hitler," Baxter detailed further. "Dreher alleges Vance ended their friendship after he urged the Vice-President to disown them. Top staff at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think-tank that supports the mass deportation of immigrants, resigned in disgust last year after the head of the organisation refused to criticise broadcaster Tucker Carlson for hosting Fuentes on his show."

From Your Site Articles