Transcript: Angry Trump Loses 2026 Plot as GOP Panics: “Flashing Red”

Sargent: Well, we had the Washington Post also reporting that Republicans privately fear that the pool of vulnerable GOP incumbents is larger than they thought. We discussed that earlier. They also fear that Trump’s struggles with independents are a serious problem and even that the conservative base is not energized. Amanda, what did you see? What have you seen out there in the races that you’ve been part of on those fronts, particularly with independents and with the conservative base and the MAGA coalition? Can you get a little granular? What are you seeing with these voter groups?

Litman: Yeah. So Run for Something had about 144 wins in the November election. Forty-three of them were red-to-blue flips across 10 states; 70% were municipal races, 23% were school boards, 7% were state legislative. They were in districts as varied as Clarion County, Pennsylvania, where Trump won 70–30. And I’d say there’s a couple of trends we saw across those places. And these are candidates who had to win over Republicans and independents in order to win. One: affordable housing. Affordable housing, affordable housing, affordable housing. They’re talking about the need to lower the cost of housing. Two: they’re really flipping Republican-coded language on its head. They’re talking about fiscal responsibility and accountability and budgeting taxpayers’ dollars, support for public safety. One candidate really put it well: Prevention, preparation, and compassion, not fear. They’re talking about solutions, not grievances. I think that I found really interesting. And point number three is that 90% of our winning candidates in these red-to-blue flips explicitly talked about transparency and about bringing trust back into these institutions—about [how] they understand that people feel like they don’t know what’s happening with their money, with their government, that they really want to. So I think that was a really powerful thing that I hope to see more candidates glomming onto next year. We saw candidates who really loved the place they’re running and honored the place that they were running.

They love their communities. They didn’t treat them as hellholes to be afraid of or to run from or, like carnage in the streets. No, it was: I love this place, and I want to make it better. We had candidates who really talked about the lived experience they had that was relevant to folks—whether that was renters or having grown up in public housing or being caregivers—like that first-person ability to tell a story that can break through some of the partisan bullshit. We sort of jokingly were like, Better sidewalks are a winning issue. But maybe not exactly that in every community, but it sort of reflects what a winning issue is, which is local. I do think this is a challenge that congressional candidates in 2026 are going to have, which is the only thing they can really credibly promise is oversight and accountability. No, don’t get me wrong; that’s incredibly important. Like holding Trump accountable and providing oversight over his government—really, really necessary. But these local candidates are going to be able to talk about specific things they can do to make places better. Congressional candidates are going to have a tougher time.