Sarah Longwell says the GOP’s 2026 historic and devastating midterm defeat was a long time coming, and further magnified by President Donald Trump and his administration's dictatorship approach in his second term. The political consultant and publisher of news and opinion website The Bulwark recently spoke with John Stewart and detailed why Democrats were able to win as big as they did this time around, and she says it sums up to a rejection of Trump and his MAGA rhetoric and policies.
Longwell characterizes the Democrats’ victories as a long-awaited political reckoning for Trump and his movement. Echoing polling trends in the months leading up to the election, she argues that a significant portion of the country—including millions of former Trump supporters—had grown frustrated with his handling of the economy, the Iran war, and tariffs, as well as his apparent disconnect from the everyday struggles of ordinary Americans. The midterm election results, she says, are evidence that Americans can still push back against authoritarianism and restore democratic institutions, even when it seems impossible. Trump’s potential political decline is something she personally takes joy in seeing.
"I have been waiting for 10 years for a thorough repudiation of Trump and his political project. And we got it,” she told Stewart. Furthermore, she is proud of the outcome, praising voters who desired change and acted on it. "The American people know a failed experiment when they see one."
According to Longwell, one of Trump’s biggest failures was his inability to connect his political messaging with Americans’ everyday realities. As voters voiced growing frustration over rising grocery prices, expensive gas, and the economic uncertainty stemming from the Iran war, Trump appeared increasingly disconnected from their concerns. Rather than address those frustrations, Longwell says, he ignored the public’s cries for help. "The American people were hurting over the economy, over the war, over Trump's lying, not caring about them. And they sent a message," Longwell asserts.
Longwell also argues that outlets like Fox News and MAGA influencers created a distorted political reality that shielded Trump supporters from facts that challenged their beliefs. But the election results shattered that narrative, leaving conservative media figures scrambling to explain the GOP’s losses.
"The MAGA media infotainment ecosystem is part of something I call the Republican triangle of doom, which is the toxic and symbiotic relationship between the right-wing infotainment media, the Republican elected officials, and the Republican voters, where they mutually reinforce each other with their nonsense," she said.
Longwell believes the outcome of the election is the end of Trump’s reign. But she says it signals a new era, one that looks very different from both the old Republican and Democratic establishment. "It is never going back," she says.
