A sitting Republican lawmaker says his party should be alarmed following a Democratic election sweep amid President Donald Trump's second presidency and the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told CNN anchor Boris Sanchez Wednesday how Trump and the GOP might not have anticipated the strong response from Americans on election night — and that it's time for both parties to negotiate and reopen the government.
He explained how "in these elections, normally the party in power is going to lose. You're going to go backwards. But I think what should alarm Republicans is the margins of victory in New Jersey and Virginia. They weren't even close. And you got to look at it."
Democrats are now in a new position, he explained.
"The Democrats are galvanized. They're angry at DOGE cuts that were on and off, the chaos. They're angry at, whether it's the guard, the National Guard being sent to our cities. I mean, a whole host of issues has galvanized the Democrats, which is somewhat normal."
He also voiced another worry: swing voters "who don't see an improvement in the economy."
"But I think what's concerning is a lot of our swing voters also went back towards Democrats, mainly because they don't see an improvement in the economy. And I think tariffs are part of that problem. And I think the president, by trying to assign blame on the shutdown, I think he's missing the bigger picture on what was the cause of the defeat last night."
Bacon said affordability remains a key concern for Americans and cited Trump's tariff policies for further damaging the party's election results.
"[The president] thinks tariffs is a way forward to bring back manufacturing. And I don't see it," Bacon added. "You know, the Republicans have not supported tariffs since the 1930s. And the tariff strategy has been a lot of tariffs on and off again. And it's been very unpredictable. And I think our economy has had instability because of this.
"The average person, when they go to the supermarket, as you say, they've not seen an improvement. And I don't think you see an improvement in our job numbers. And a whole host of data. We're not seeing really not going backwards, but it's not going forward. And I really think tariffs have undermined the president's economic progress here."