U.S. President Donald Trump looks on at the Republican National Midterm Convention in Dallas, Texas, U.S., September 9, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci
A key piece of President Donald Trump's convention in Dallas, Texas, this week was getting GOP strategists in a room with big donors to explain why they should be dumping more money into campaigns analysts see as unwinnable.
Politico reported on Friday that big donors came together behind the scenes to discuss the president's new strategy for the 2026 midterm elections so everyone could be on the same message. That message is to attack Democrats and gin up fear, which didn't impress the donors who think the GOP needs to be doing much more.
Politico recalled that Senate Leadership Fund president Alex Latcham said in July, “This needs to be an election about fear.”
"As both sides continue to move resources into redder territory, turning out the GOP base with dire warnings about Democrats becomes more important," the report said. "In those states, the GOP may be able to stanch the bleeding simply by mobilizing their own voters in droves rather than persuading disaffected independents."
Senate leadership held an event Wednesday to discuss the fund that must be sent to red states like Texas and Iowa, which Trump won by double digits just two years ago. The report noted that Vice President JD Vance is heading to deep-red Kansas because, for the first time in 90 years, there's a chance that a Republican senator could be removed.
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Ks.) is facing off against a church pastor and the race has become surprisingly competitive, particularly after Trump's trade war with Canada targeted a business jet manufacturer headquartered in Montreal with more than 1,200 jobs located in Kansas. Marshall complained to the White House. Marshall was told Republicans had to "own it."
A Politico reporter overheard a convention attendee from Kansas "bemoaning Marshall's situation." This week, a former two-term Republican governor of the state endorsed Marshall's democratic opponent.
Another meeting unfolded Thursday with Senate leadership attempting to "ease donors’ concerns about" Trump's policies and that they could lead to hefty losses in November. Two people in the room, who "granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting,' told Politico that, again, the plan was to attack Democrats. One of those who spoke to the site recorded the comments from Vance.
“We’ve got to nationalize this election. We’ve got to talk about all the crazy things Democrats are doing,” Vance claimed in the audio.
One top GOP House operative lamented that the party should make the election “a choice, not a referendum.” But a referendum on Trump's policies is exactly what the election has become as Americans face an affordability crisis and another Middle East war.
“Republicans would be well served to paint that choice in as clear terms as possible,” the operative said.
Bill Riggs, spokesperson for Americans for Prosperity Action, which is funded by the Koch brothers' fortune, told Politico, “The right strategy is not just to attack the other side and attack those policy proposals. You need to do that, but it’s not going to be enough. You also have to provide a credible alternative to voters that they trust. Driving that contrast is where we’re continuing to advocate."
Republicans have held the House, Senate and White House for two years, which could make it difficult for them to attack the other party's policies.
One main piece of the argument that is being promoted by the White House is aligning Democrats with the Democratic Socialists of America and socialism. That, however, shifted in a big way this week during the convention as Republicans changed their attacks on the left from socialist to communist. One reporter and author explained that history suggests the strategy will "backfire."
The biggest problem for Trump, however, is that while attacking socialism and communism, one of his new plans is to promise Americans $5,000 stimulus checks, which many said was an example of socialism itself.
"That drew private eyerolls from some Republicans who said the proposal directly clashes with their effort to paint the midterms as a choice between commonsense Republicans and socialist Democrats," Politico reported.
One House Republican official complained, “We’re supposed to be fighting socialism. This seems a lot like socialism.”
“It’s not enough just to defend,” said Michigan GOP candidate Mike Bouchard, who’s running in a battleground district. “We must advance, and to do that, we must have real solutions.”
