A Trump ally and prominent Republican senator has warned that the GOP could be "dead" if they lose a key voting bloc.
Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno issued the warning in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, arguing that the GOP can’t afford to lose working-class voters.
"It's the whole deal. If we don't hang on to those working-class voters, we're dead as a party. That's why I say with no hyperbole, if President Trump hadn’t won in 2016, the Republican Party would be dead. Because the Republican Party had abandoned working-class Americans.”
The senator, a close Trump ally, believes the president won because the Democrats abandoned the working-class voters, describing it as a void Trump managed to fill.
The report states that Trump scored a high percentage of the working-class white American vote in both 2016 and 2024. But Moreno's comments also exposed a growing problem for the GOP, which is the rising living costs and the war with Iran, which is leaving many voters to choose their wallets over loyalty to President Trump.
While Moreno didn’t name Trump directly, he said that the working-class voters "hate" the war.
Trump, along with Israel, started the war with Iran on February 28, 2026, and claimed it would be over quickly. The conflict has directly led to higher gas prices, which Moreno also acknowledged his voters “hate.”
He also said that he is unsure if Trump’s claims that Iran would have used a nuclear weapon if he didn’t attack the Middle Eastern nation would “penetrated enough.”
Moreno nevertheless defended the administration's military campaign, and said Republicans needed to do a better job explaining that case to voters.
His warning arrives with less than two weeks before the midterm elections, where Republicans are looking increasingly unlikely to maintain their majority in Congress.
A Fox News survey released October 14 found that 60 percent of voters identified the cost of living as their biggest economic concern and Trump's job approval stood at just 36 percent, which is the lowest for their polling history.
GOP candidates selling a bright economic future to voters have to contend with a president who repeatedly promised to restore prosperity and lower costs during his 2024 campaign and has so far done the opposite.
Despite Trump’s historic success with working-class voters, a Fox poll in May found that White voters without college degrees disapproved of his handling of the economy at 67 percent, a dramatic turn from one of his most loyal voting blocs.
For the Republicans, it is a difficult balancing act to defend Trump's economic and foreign policy decisions while at the same time convincing voters who are financially strained that the administration understands their immediate concerns.
He made it clear that the party's future, not just its November results, will depend on whether those working-class voters stay loyal.
