www.dailywire.com
Newt Gingrich: The 2026 Strategy That Could Save Republicans From Total Disaster
Despite the many current challenges America is facing — and the propaganda media’s constant efforts to attack the administration and conservatives — Republicans have a tremendous opportunity before them in November.
The key to a Republican victory will be making the midterm elections about one question: Which party is better for you, your family, and America? This is the path to an historic victory for President Donald J. Trump and Republicans in 2026.
While the question is simple, convincing Americans to choose the GOP will be difficult. After all, the left-wing media has spent 11 years emphasizing every negative story about President Trump and Republicans — and downplaying all positive ones. Similarly, the Democrats’ disdain for Trump has led them to stop him at all costs — even if that means undermining our security, weakening our economy, or disrupting our government’s ability to function.
Winning requires Republicans to understand and communicate four big ideas about the nature of reality and the facts and truth of the situation. The GOP should treat each as its own campaign.
The Socialists Are Taking Over
The greatest vulnerability of the 2026 Democrats is the degree to which they have become the party of big government socialism and weird values. The pattern of Democrats moving toward openly socialist, anti-American positions is building. Consider the spate of recent candidates in New York, including Darializa Avila Chevalier, who boasted about using the American flag as a napkin. This is creating an opportunity to brand the Democrats for a generation or more as unelectable.
Republicans have a simple case to make: Big government socialism does not create jobs, increase wages, train people for the future, make people healthier, or simply work at a practical level. It just runs out of other people’s money to spend. Of course, establishment Democrats and the media are trying to downplay this shift in the party. But when establishment Democrats get to Washington, they talk and vote like big government socialists to appease the activist fundraising apparatus.
Even those who are inoculated from the socialist strain would rather stop Trump than help Americans.
We Must Bring Down Costs
Republicans must have an intense, compelling, focused plan for affordability and jobs with good incomes. A recent Pew Poll found that 73% of Americans said healthcare costs were a major problem, 66% said food and consumer costs were a problem, 62% said housing affordability was a major problem. Ultimately, Republicans must go where the people are — not try to get people to come to where their campaign would be comfortable. A Republican Affordability and Jobs Plan is a major building block of victory. Part of it also must describe what Democrats are doing to kill jobs, raise prices, and undermine affordability — while outlining what President Trump and Republicans have done to help raise family incomes and create opportunity and jobs.
Be the America Party
President Trump’s focus on patriotic and foundational cultural issues and emphasis on America and the Freedom 250 project have set the stage for Republicans to become the American Party (much as Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party became the American Party, which marginalized the Federalists). A positive President Trump-Republican campaign emphasizing popular 70% to 90% issues that the Democrats demonstrably oppose — and appealing to everyone who cares about those issues — would strengthen the image of the Republican Party and isolate the Democrats.
The Healthcare Opportunity
New science, technology, and understanding of how to stay healthy are creating an opportunity for a health-oriented Republican program to create a totally new dialogue around healthcare. Efforts to make the healthcare system more transparent and understandable to everyday people will expose waste and abuse and bring down costs. Healthcare is a matter of life and death — and makes up about 18% of the national economy. It is the highest value for most Americans at a practical level. If Republicans can become the party of a healthy America, we would create an opportunity involving every life in our country.
Because this is the boldest and newest development, it will take more training for members, candidates, staffers, committees, and campaigns to talk about it comfortably. It offers an enormous opportunity to work with the American people in a positive program that dramatically broadens Republican appeal and shows us as the caring, compassionate, problem-solving party that we are. In the process of helping people lead healthier, better lives, we would also liberate several trillion dollars now tied up in wasteful, bureaucratic, bad policies, and obsolete approaches.
It has always been harder to govern than to campaign. This is why historically the party in the White House normally loses seats in the midterm elections. If the liberal media and the Democrats can make 2026 a referendum on the current state of things, they might be able to win a normal off-year victory.
However, if Republicans decisively win these four arguments, 2026 will be one of the most historic elections in our 250-year history.
***
This is republished with permission from the author. The original can be found here.
Newt Gingrich was the Republican Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. He is the creator of the Gingrich360 newsletter. Follow him on Twitter @NewtGingrich.