The year: 1986 Sitting in the White House was one very popular Republican president: Ronald Reagan. The challenge for Reagan’s White House — where I was serving in the White House Political Office — was translating that popularity to a win in the 1986 congressional elections when Reagan himself was not on the ballot. The challenge even had a name: “The Six-Year Itch.” Interestingly, the nickname came from a popular term in marriages — “The Seven-Year Itch” referring to the seventh year of a marriage when things in the once blissful new marital relationship can start to go south. In the case of “The Six-Year Itch,” this trend has been ongoing forever for presidents. From the post-Civil War era of Reconstruction beginning in 1874, with one exception, all the way through to Barack Obama’s 2014 loss of 13 House seats and 9 Senate seats, the Six-Year Itch has worked its curse. That exception? That would be for Bill Clinton’s 6th year, in which Democrats gained 5 House seats while their Senate numbers in the minority remained unchanged. So the question in 1986 was whether President Reagan’s personal popularity could carry into the “off-year” congressional elections when he, himself, was not on the ballot. What to do? Starting with the president himself, the answer was obvious: send the popular president all around the country to campaign for Republican candidates. He had, after all, been elected twice — in 1980 and 1984 — in two landslides. His re-election in 1984, just two years earlier, had Reagan winning in a 49-state landslide. So, send him around the country we did. On one memorable occasion, we youngsters running the Political Office had the then-75-year-old president booked to fly out from Washington D.C. to campaign for a West Coast candidate, Washington State’s GOP Senate candidate, and then, at the rally’s conclusion, fly back to Washington D.C. And then. Ahem. And then Mrs. Reagan called us. Making it plain that while her husband was president of the United States, he was, in fact, 75 years old. And there was no way — say again, no way! — that she would allow us to fly him from Washington D.C. to Washington State and back across America again the same day to Washington D.C. The Reagans, she made clear, would be overnighting in Los Angeles. To which our response (from our office boss) was a quick “Yes, ma’am.” Suffice to say, the political pressure was on. And on election night, alas, Republicans maintained their losing position in the Democrat-held House, and additionally, they lost eight Senate seats, losing their Senate majority. Other Six-Year Itch elections have had various results. But one obvious result is that no matter a president’s winning streak two years earlier in his own re-election, their party can still end up on the losing end of the six-year congressional elections. And that goes for gubernatorial elections as well. In 1966, a mere two years after Democrat President Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 landslide win over the GOP’s Senator Barry Goldwater, California’s supposedly popular Democrat governor, Edmund “Pat” Brown by name, was up for re-election. The California GOP Establishment of the day was aghast at those in its ranks who wanted to try and defeat the popular Governor Brown with a decided newcomer — an untested Hollywood actor named Ronald Reagan. In a shocking upset, Brown lost in a landslide to newcomer Ronald Reagan. And the rest of the story, as they say, was serious history. The lesson here is clear. As America slides into the traditional end-of-year holiday season of Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s — and the political fevers subside (slightly!) — come January of the New Year, the 2026 election year will begin in earnest. The Six-Year Itch, now magnified in spades with the combined power of the Internet on top of television, will be nigh impossible to escape. The demands for presidential campaign stops for this or that crucial Senate, House, or governor’s race will slowly build to a thunderous chorus. Television and the Internet will be flooded with political commercials, not to mention coverage of President Trump’s campaign rallies and those of his Democrat Party opponents. All of which is to say, enjoy the approaching holiday season. And rest up. The 2026 campaign is soon to begin. Buckle in. READ MORE from Jeffrey Lord: Nick Fuentes: American Leftist The GOP Loss Is Not a Big Deal Three Cheers for Mark Levin