Republicans head into the 2026 midterms with a rare advantage: a concrete record of accomplishments to run on powered by President Donald Trump’s second-term successes.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has proposed a practical midterm strategy reminiscent of his 1994 “Contract with America” that urges Republicans to run hard on their winning record.

That record includes such wins as the Working Families Tax Cut, which has already brought positive effects to the economy. The “Big Beautiful Bill” extended the 2017 tax cuts, ended taxes on tips and overtime, ended taxes on Social Security for most seniors, expanded the child tax credits and childcare tax credits. It also permitted businesses to write off major investments, made permanent a 20% small-business tax deduction, loosened restrictions on oil and gas lease sales, expanded Workforce Pell grants, provided investment accounts for children and expanded access to zero-deductible telehealth.

Remarkably, not a single Democrat voted in favor of this powerhouse legislation.

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Republicans should be shouting these accomplishments from the rooftops.

Compare that to the Democrats, whose much-delayed, much-hyped, then much-feared “autopsy” of what went wrong in 2024 finally hit the press. Sadly, it left out any fruitful evaluation of the real reasons for their loss — the failed policies of the Biden administration and the promises of then-Vice President Kamala Harris to enact even worse ones.

In fact, Democrats only seem willing to double down on their crazy ideas, moving further away from the American mainstream to embrace their activist base. Their candidates oppose law enforcement and border security. Their candidates care more about biological men pretending to be women than real women. They field a candidate who had a Nazi SS tattoo, and another who called for the imprisonment of “American Zionists” and spouted other antisemitic phrases.

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Democrat candidates care more about illegal aliens than American citizens, epitomized by the fact that not a single Democrat stood during the president’s State of the Union address when asked if they support American citizens over illegal immigrants. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries thinks continued racial division is the way to go, asking athletes to withdraw or boycott Southern universities, even though the best options for them might be universities like Alabama, Georgia or Auburn.

Harris — maybe the closest thing to a party leader they’ve got — isn’t doing the Democrats any favors either. Her recent call for a “no bad idea brainstorm” focused on nothing but unconstitutional pipe dreams.

Harris and other prominent Democrats openly push to fundamentally rewrite the rules of American democracy. If they had their druthers, they’d abolish the Electoral College, create multi-member congressional districts and immediately pack the Supreme Court. These positions are no longer fringe; they are the mainstream of today’s Democratic Party.

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Marc Elias, the Democrats’ redistricting strategist, has gone so far to as to imply that the entire state government of Virginia should be thrown out and reconstituted after the Virginia Democrats’ redistricting referendum was deemed unconstitutional by the state’s Supreme Court. Talk about a sore loser.

The Democrats simply will not learn from their mistakes. Still, Republicans aren’t guaranteed a midterm victory and, despite the proven success of their agenda, there’s more work to be done to convince voters that Trump and Republicans are the team unlocking prosperity for Americans.

For example, though inflation has largely been tamed by the Trump administration, it’s still nagging enough to mention. High gas prices also remain a tangible pain point for many voters. Republicans should make the case that their energy policies have already generated over $4 billion in new lease revenues and domestic energy production. These policies — as well as a smart resolution to the Iran war — are the surest path to lasting relief at the pump.

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Another “must do” for Republicans is to ensure the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movement’s successes are getting through to moms. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has made significant progress getting America on the path to better health. Under his leadership, artificial food dyes known to contain carcinogens have been eliminated.

Vaccines are being reexamined for true efficacy and requirements are being relaxed to give families more choices for their children. The “Eat Real Food” campaign encourages families to move away from the ultra-processed foods filled with unpronounceable, unhealthy chemicals and toward real, nourishing whole foods.

Women care about their families’ health and are seeing positive changes on grocery store shelves and in the doctor’s office, and it’s President Trump and Republicans who’ve empowered the Make America Healthy Again transformation. In 2026, the issue of health should be just as important on the campaign trail as the economy.

The midterms, like the 2024 election, will pit normal people with normal ideas against crazy. The 2026 map is receptive to Republican ideas, and Republicans have a popular and winning record. Now they need to become their own best cheerleaders and make sure every voter knows it.

The next four months are anniversary heavy.

Before the fireworks of the 250th Fourth of July begin, try with family and friends to agree on what we are celebrating, and try as well to articulate why and how we defend what our country has long been committed to on paper and for 250 years in actual and expanding practice.

While the Semiquincentennial is upon us in a month, we are also only three months and an handful of days away from the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by Al Qaeda on the United States.

The great and the awful anniversaries are connected by that which the first proclaimed and which the second attempted to end: freedom.

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The Declaration asserted the existence of “rights” of individuals that exist before any government — no matter its form — comes into being:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

The great day of the fourth is, from beginning to end, about love of our country because our country defends our individual rights, rights inherent in the way we are formed by God and nature. While there are several ways to enumerate our natural rights, the founders of the country thought them all sufficiently important to risk everything to declare and fight for those rights. That is the core of what we celebrating next month: our freedoms.

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We ought also to spend part of this celebration in reflecting on admiration for the courage of the not just those who voted “yes” on the Declaration and who would actually sign their names to it on August 2, 1776. They did the voting and the signing in the face of overwhelming odds against their success as the American colonists were choosing war with the mighty British Empire. As Justice Neil Gorsuch’s recent book for children and young adults — Heroes of 1776 — made clear, the sacrifices and suffering of our founding families were extreme and their deprivations bitter during the long war that followed.

(A celebration of the day of the actual signing of the Declaration will be held on August 2 at Perry’s Victory & International Peace Memorial on the shores of Lake Erie, adjacent to the town of Put-In-Bay, Ohio. There is no more appropriate place as it was there that the Revolution announced on the 4th of July in 1776 and sealed on the 2nd was actually made enduring with the defeat of the squadron of British ships by the American Navy that effectively turned the second war with Great Britain — the War of 1812 — in America’s favor.)

That first of America’s long wars ran from April 19, 1775 in Lexington and Concord where the first shots were fired until September 3, 1783 when King George’s representatives signed the Treaty of Paris recognizing the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation. The second war with Britain begun formally in 1812 followed decades of tensions between our country and its motherland. Real peace with the United Kingdom was not achieved until February, 17 1815 when the Treaty of Ghent was ratified by the United States Senate, and what was effectively 40 years of conflict with Great Britain came to a close, and the rights of Americans secured from foreign entities even as the long work of perfecting them for all Americans would take up more than another 150 years and encompass a vast Civil War and our entry into two world wars as well as numerous Amendments to the Constitution and federal laws to make the example of a free people more perfect.

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The Declaration became a touchstone of “the West,” with more than half of the 192 countries now represented at the United Nations having a founding document that can be called a “Declaration of Independence.” The origins of the Declaration reach far back in history, to both “Jerusalem and Athens,” to Ancient Israel and Ancient Greece. One could even argue that Ancient Persia has a hand in forming “the West” as it was Cyrus the Great who repatriated the Jews to Jerusalem and his son-in-law Darius who endorsed the rebuilding of their Temple there. Without the return of the Jews from their exile the West could not have developed as it did.

The Declaration perfected the mission statement of “The West,” the long work of drafting of which can be understood to have begun with England’s Magna Carta, sealed by King John of England at Runnymede on 15 June 1215. The United States Constitution, when ratified in 1789, and amended to add the Bill of Rights soon thereafter, established the Republic that has successfully protected the rights demanded by the Declaration in theory, but only made real for all citizens only after a vast Civil War and decades of amendment and legislation.

The American Republic remains the model of successful governance through the rule of law protected by the separation of the powers of government both vertically between the state and federal governments and horizontally within those governments that divide legislative, executive and judicial branches into equal branches of those federal and state governments.

The First Amendment prohibits the establishment of an official religion in the United States while also protecting the “free exercise” of all faiths or none.

One of the motivating hatreds of fanatics for America — like those who attacked in 25 years ago in September and those we are fighting today in Iran and its proxies — is that Americans refuse to declare one religion to be the “true” religion. All faiths or none at all are protected here. This refusal to establish a national faith — whether religious or secular — is the source of the hatred held for us by many of our enemies.

Defining the extent of “the West” is difficult. America sets the standard for individual liberty, but many countries aspire to reach that level of ordered liberty. The West should be understood as any country in which the expansion of liberty and literacy is ongoing and where the rule of law controls life, not the rule of one or a few powerful people. If personal freedoms and literacy are on the rise in a country, that nation is either a part of or aspiring to join “the West.”

Many nations around the world have “established” religions, including Israel and all of its neighbors. (The Pew Research Center counts 80 counties that either have an official religion or favor one or more religious groups over others.) That a country has an “established religion” doesn’t exclude it from “The West.” Any nation that protects religious minorities in the exercise of their faith and the right of citizens to speak freely is clearly part of “the West.”

Many counties are on the path towards classically liberal ideals. As our own journey took almost two centuries to complete even in theory (with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act or 1965) so too other nations in the world are on their own paths towards joining wholly with “the West.”

America’s 250 years of independence is the standard by which other republics are measured. The enemies of the “American system” are many and varied but they share in common a hatred of pluralism, of freedom of speech and belief, press and assembly, and ultimately self-government.

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When America celebrates this summer, our friends around the world will applaud our progress and our role as the deliverer of the world from its would-be totalitarian rulers in the 20th century, and as the great protector of freedom of the seas and enemy of absolutism in all of its forms in the 21st.

When we celebrate on the 4th of July and the 2nd of August, we ought to keep in mind that only a few weeks later we will mourn the awful anniversary of the worst attack on America by foreigners in history. Absolutist fanatics drove the terrible events of 9/11. The fanaticism which led to the equal of the darkest of days in modern times insisted on exclusive claims of truth, claims that could not compete with those fundamental structures of the West which allow free peoples the rights of conscience.

Totalitarians can be secular or sectarian. What they always must be, however, is absolutist in their truth claims, and oppressive of anyone or country that asserts freedom of thought.

Which is why we ought to see both the “hot war” with Iran and its proxies, as well as the relatively new Cold War 2.0 with the People’s Republic of China and its allies, as part of the never-ending struggle of free peoples against those who would subjugate them. Ukraine and Israel are our allies in fact and usually in name because they embrace the fundamental commitment to the individual’s freedom. Their enemies are our enemies because their enemies want to snuff out the freedom the peoples of those country enjoy. Though their modern “foundings” are more than a century younger than ours, they have embraced the right path and are heading in the right direction. They are part of the West as is, for example, the United Arab Emirates and increasingly other countries in the Middle East and across the Pacific which are gradually modernizing their understanding of the rights of their peoples and the crucial need for the rule of law.

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We all ought to hope that 50 years hence on our tricentennial the great people of Iran and other counties throughout the Middle East have joined the Abraham Accords, and that our commitment to freedom of the individual has spread throughout our hemisphere.

We ought also to hope that the police state that is the People’s Republic of China has evolved to a government that lifts their people up and protects their freedoms rather than persecuting them for trying to exercise their natural rights Americans have long recognized and fought and died for.

This brace of anniversaries should remind every American that ours is a unique and enduring commitment to human liberty and that many in the world fear such ordered liberty and always will. But if the framers could endure on-and-off battles with the planet’s greatest power for 40 years beginning in 1775, every generation ought to know they have it within themselves to carry on that commitment to the country’s first principles.

Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor and host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show” heard weekday afternoons from 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh drives Americans home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable, hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting. This column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.

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Democrats have a tiger by the tail.

Democratic Socialists are bringing money and energy to their party, but also a growing crop of anti-American, anti-capitalist and often antisemitic candidates who scorn our country’s traditions and values. These challengers may ride today’s wave of anti-Trump sentiment, concern about AI and anger about high prices, and win in solidly Democrat areas, like Manhattan, but long term they will become an embarrassment. AOC and her Democratic Socialist colleagues are not going to breach the Oval Office anytime soon.

Establishment Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer know this, but are scared to death of taking on the likes of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, for fear of being primaried by Leftist candidates and run out of office. Consequently, they have left the door open and unguarded, welcoming the upstarts. Shame on them.

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Democrats believe they have an excellent chance to take back control of Congress in the fall midterm elections. The war in Iran is not popular, gasoline prices are hovering at $4 per gallon, and the President’s approval ratings have declined. The stage is set for a Democrat win.

But, as the far left invades their party, incumbent Democrat legislators are being pushed aside by increasingly bizarre and offensive candidates like Darializa Avila Chevalier, who in recent years denounced former President Joe Biden as a “rapist” and “war criminal” and on social media proclaimed the U.S. a “f**king disgrace.” Chevalier, who for good measure also posted “f**k Kamala Harris” and has attacked leftists Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, has a shot at ousting long-time Democrat stalwart Adriano Espaillat who represents New York’s 13th Congressional district.

Chevalier has a deplorable history of racist remarks, is in favor of closing all prisons, legalizing all drugs and ending U.S. military support for Israel.

No one would be taking this person seriously but for her endorsement by Zohran Mamdani. New York’s Democratic Socialist Mayor shocked his party’s establishment by giving his support to Chevalier, thus undermining a five-term congressman who is head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The seat is safe, rated “Solid D” by the Cook report, but a win by Chevalier would further boost Mamdani’s power and lessen moderate Democrats’ tenuous control of the party.

Chevalier is not the only far-left candidate making headlines. As the midterm looms, Democrats eager to take control of the senate are pinning hopes on the likes of Graham Platner to defeat Republican Susan Collins in Maine, Abdul El-Sayed to fill an open seat in Michigan and James Talerico who is running against Texas AG Ken Paxton for Republican John Cornyn’s seat in the Lone Star state.

Platner and Talerico have had to scrub embarrassing social media histories in frantic efforts to reinvent themselves. In this internet era, your past is thankfully hard to erase, and rightly so. Disavowing something you said five years ago just because it now complicates your campaign isn’t persuasive.

Platner has not only had to pretend he no longer believes vulgar posts from a now-deleted Reddit account about his appetite for masturbation, that make light of sexual assaults and other sexual topics, but has also tried to explain away a Nazi-themed tattoo on his chest. Most recently, it has come to light that his wife alerted his campaign early on about sexually explicit texts Platner sent to several women that she had discovered on the oyster farmer’s phone. He also has an account on a private messaging app called Kik that some claim is often used for sexual hook-ups.

Like Platner, Texas state representative James Talerico is feverishly reinventing himself. In 2022, Talerico ran what he then described as a “non-meat” campaign, telling an audience concerned with animal welfare that climate change considerations were driving him to reduce his consumption of meat. Now, running to represent a major cattle-ranching state, and after being derided as “Tofu Talerico” by opponent Ken Paxton, the candidate declares himself a red-blooded steak lover.

Talerico is also battling early comments that “God is non-binary,” and that there are six sexes, just the kinds of goofy nonsense that GOP opponents can capitalize on. Moreover, he has embraced the canard that white people are essentially racist, which is unlikely to play well in the Lone Star state.

In Michigan, one of the front-runners in the Democratic Primary to fill Gary Peter’s seat is progressive Abdul El-Sayed, a far-left proponent of Medicare-for-all who wants to abolish ICE and who made headlines recently by recounting a story showcasing what critics say are serious anger management issues. El-Sayed, admitted to smashing a fifth of vodka on the floor of a liquor store in Detroit because the proprietor commented on the length of his beard, something with religious connotations among his fellow Muslims.

Establishment Democrats must be horrified at the turn their party is taking. Adding to their woes, Jill Biden is hitting the airwaves trying to drum up interest in her new book. The former First Lady is doing interviews about her White House years, reminding the country of the essential lie of the Biden era, perpetuated by her and by Democrat officials, that Joe Biden was fit to serve another four years.

Meanwhile, the Democrat National Committee is at war with itself, wrangling over, among other things, an incomplete and sloppy “autopsy” about how they lost in 2024. They don’t need an autopsy, they just need to listen to the few sane voices in their party which have decried Democrats’ support of biological men competing in women’s sports, defunding the police, open borders and other unpopular issues.

In addition, at some point, they will have to freeze out the radical extremists who are hijacking their party and actively working against the best interest of the United States. The voters will not stand for it.

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