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The Republican Strategy to Salvage the Midterms

The right wing is scrambling for wins in the elections as Democrats lead in the polls.
Duration
36m
Broadcast on
15 Oct 2026
Audio Format
other

With Republicans trailing in the polls, the party is making hard choices about where to spend its money — abandoning some races while pouring resources into others.

Shane Goldmacher, Nate Cohn and Lisa Lerer, political correspondents for The New York Times, explain why President Trump is campaigning almost daily in deep-red territory, how his influence is shaping the strategy and whether Democrats can win over the disenchanted voters they may need to take back the House and the Senate.

Guests: 

  • Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.
  • Nate Cohn, the chief political analyst for The New York Times.
  • Lisa Lerer, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

Photo: Kenny Holston/The New York Times

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

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From New York Times, I'm Michael Bobaro. This is the Daily League. Today, the Republican strategy to win the midterms, and how it's playing out in spending, advertising, televised candidate debates, and personal attacks. I spoke with three of my colleagues, political reporters Shane Goldmacher, Lisa Lair, and Nate Kahn. It's Thursday, October 15th. Lisa and Shane and Nate, thank you for joining this campaign roundtable. Appreciate it. Thanks for having us. Wahoo. I appreciate that. Wahoo, Shane. Big energy. So loyal listeners of the Daily will recall that we have spent a lot of time on the show in the past few weeks talking about democratic momentum in these midterm elections, especially in traditionally red states. We've talked about the fact that Democrats are favored, not by a lot, but favored to win both the House and the Senate based on our own polling. But today, we want to focus on the Republican strategy for winning these midterms and the potential electoral path to a Republican victory. And so, Shane, let me start with you. Can you summarize, based on your reporting, what the Republican strategy for victory is? And I guess just clarify what would even constitute a Republican triumph in this election? Yeah. I mean, I think that the Republican strategy for victory right now in the House doesn't really look like victory. It looks like keeping their losses to be in the minority, but not by a lot. This week, they made a number of changes to their ad reservations that basically ceded two more current Republican held seats after they ceded one last week. They're ceding sufficient races to let you know that they've given up on the math of winning the House. You don't give up on your incumbents unless things are looking bad. And people are saying this is to stave off deeper potential losses. Got it. So in the House, victory might mean losing by less, right? It's not actually holding the majority at this moment. And it's a totally different story in the Senate, where Republicans very much have a chance to hold their majority. And they're doing so by competing in a number of traditionally red states. The map has gotten deeper into their territory, but it still is favoring the Republicans such that they can win. If they hold states, they typically win in. So the Republican strategy is to protect this majority really in the Senate. And I have to imagine that a big way that it does that. We've talked about it in past episodes is by tapping into this extraordinary financial advantage that the Republican Party has in these midterms over Democrats. And I wonder how it is using that money, Lisa. Right. Well, part of how they're trying to circle the wagons, as Shane said, is by just dumping

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The right wing is scrambling for wins in the elections as Democrats lead in the polls.