In the 2018 midterms, health care proved to be a very strong issue for Democrats and a terrible one for Republicans.
Democratic strategists hammered President Donald Trump and then-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) relentlessly on their efforts to overturn the Affordable Care Act of 2010, a.k.a. Obamacare, and that messaging worked: Democrats flipped the U.S. House of Representatives with a net gain of 40 seats. And some Democrats argued that their party would have picked up even more House seats had Republicans not gerrymandered congressional districts so badly.
Now, with Trump seven months into his second presidency, Democratic strategists are hoping that health care will once again be a major liability for Republicans. And according to Lauren Egan, a reporter for the conservative website The Bulwark, the Trump Administration and GOP lawmakers are giving Democrats a lot of political ammunition to use against them — from Obamacare to steep Medicaid cuts to turmoil at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevents (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
"The descent of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention into an agency of anti-vaccine agendas and organizational chaos…. has created additional fodder for Democrats already keen on campaigning on health care in 2026," Egan reports in an article published by The Bulwark on August 31. "The topic has been emphasized by several Democrats over the past few days. Sen. Patty Murray said it was 'dangerous' for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to remain in power and called for him to be fired."
Democrats, Egan stresses, are pounding Republicans over chaos at the CDC as well as on "health care costs."
"Democrats are already attacking Republicans for passing Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' that cut Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, which could leave nearly 12 million Americans newly uninsured and unable to afford basic health care," Egan explains. "When Republicans return to D.C., they will face pressure to extend the enhanced ACA subsidies, which were created with the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and are set to expire at the end of the year…. Some Dem officials and health care advocates see parallels between the upcoming midterms and the 2018 cycle, when the party focused its campaigns on Trump's failed attempt to repeal Obamacare. The difference this time around is that Republicans actually succeeded in passing their legislation."
Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care, believes that health care will be a toxic issue for Republicans in the 2026 midterms.
Woodhouse told The Bulwark, "I do think it's gonna be a health care election, but I think it's gonna be wrapped into this whole issue of affordability. There's a wicked brew here that is amassing against Republicans, and it's all self-inflicted. They've committed political suicide."
Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA, told The Bulwark, "Affordability will continue to be a major theme of the election, and health care is probably Exhibit A in that conversation. I think it has its own power because it is literally about taking care of yourself and your family. It has an emotional pull, and any impacts of that have the ability to punch through the information bubble that you happen to be in."
Lauren Egan's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.