Even as Tuesday’s elections hang in the balance, President Donald Trump has bluntly suggested that he is already looking ahead to the 2026 midterm races with a sense of dread.
“We’ve had success like nobody, but for some reason, you lose the midterms,” Trump said late last month at the White House, waxing aloud about the political backlash that most presidents face during midterm elections. “I don’t know why. It doesn’t make sense.”
A year after winning back the White House, the first big electoral test of Trump’s second term is taking shape in marquee elections on Tuesday, when Virginia and New Jersey will elect governors, California will vote on a pivotal ballot measure to redraw its congressional maps, and New York City will pick its next mayor.
It’s a chance for some voters to deliver a verdict on the actions of the new Trump administration. While hardly a perfect indicator, the results could offer clues about the political climate heading into next year’s elections, when voters will determine control of Congress for the rest of Trump’s presidency.
“We have to win the midterms,” Trump said as he addressed Senate Republicans during a lunch in the Rose Garden. “Otherwise, all of the things that we’ve done, so many of them, are going to be taken away by the radical left lunatics.
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