The Republican Party is racking up loss after high-profile loss in 2025 off-year elections, with party insiders claiming they are "spooked" and "freaking out" about losses, particularly in once-safe red states, per a Friday report from The Hill.
Major losses started for the party on Election Day 2025, when Democrats running a campaign centered on affordability and opposition to President Donald Trump won by decisive margins in New York City's mayoral race, and the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey. The night also saw Democrats win non-federal statewide races in Georgia for the first time in decades. That trend continued this week, when Democrat Eileen Higgins became the first Democrat elected mayor of Miami in 28 years, besting the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate by nearly 20 points.
Speaking with The Hill, sources close to the Trump White House said that the underperformances and losses in "party strongholds" have members of the GOP increasingly concerned with the downward trend and what it portends as the 2026 midterms approach.
“Republicans losing in Republican areas? That’s a different story. I think that’s got people freaking out,” a former Trump White House staffer told the outlet.
Another source, described as "close to the White House," suggested that GOP leaders were trying to ignore the problem and suggested that the Republican National Committee (RNC) is not doing enough to help these smaller races.
“There’s a lot of digging our heads in the sand and acting as if we don’t have a five-alarm fire going off," the source said. “I’ve been in a lot of conversations where people are wondering where the hell the RNC is and local in-state GOP parties. I’m worried that way too many people are still celebrating the victory of Donald Trump and forgetting that we still have other races to win.”
The same source further suggested that mobilization efforts and state gerrymandering might help the party avoid the midterms "bloodbath" that many others have predicted.
"We have an uphill battle, but between redistricting and actual mobilization that I hope happens within our party, the midterms will hopefully be less of a bloodbath," the source added.
While Texas's redrawn congressional map was upheld by the Supreme Court this week, efforts in other red states have not gone smoothly. On Thursday, an attempt to redraw Indiana's map to remove its only two Democratic districts was decisively voted down in the state Senate.