Republican lawmakers assess midterm losses and the work ahead

Congress faces a funding deadline and a possible defense secretary impeachment

Congress returned from the 2026 midterms with government funding set to run out on 11 December and a major defense policy bill and long-delayed agricultural measure still unfinished. Funding must be extended, ideally through the following September, and all of the pending legislation needs support from both parties to advance.

The first unresolved question is whether House Republicans will pursue the impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The Guardian described the resolution as the “swan song” of Thomas Massie, a Republican who opposed Trump during much of his second term, and attributed Massie’s primary loss to that opposition. Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday evening, “The House will work. We will stay here around the clock if necessary,” while calling the election results “a moment of sober reflection for us as a party.” A Guardian caption showed Johnson at a press conference in Washington DC on Monday. A separate Guardian caption showed Johnson arriving for a closed-door national security briefing on Monday.

Some Republicans said the party should think bigger because it might regain control of Congress under a Republican president, perhaps by advancing another party-line bill on fighting fraud or funding defense. The votes were technically available, but the timing was uncertain: the House was scheduled to wrap on 17 December and the Senate the following day. The Guardian reported that Democrats were expected to resist further parts of President Donald Trump’s agenda, while incoming Democratic members prepared to take office.

On their first day back in the Capitol after last week’s midterm elections, Republican lawmakers were divided between those who saw the defeat coming and those who did not. West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice said, “I told you exactly what was going to happen. Over and over and over, I told you.” He added, “I said really and truly, if you weren’t concerned and you were a Republican, you were living in a cave. That was my exact words.” Warren Davidson of Ohio said, “No one anticipated the magnitude. I mean, you can’t tell me that the guy that ran as a Democrat for senator in Mississippi thought he was going to win.”

The scale of the losses surprised Republican lawmakers. The Guardian reported that few pollsters or political analysts had publicly forecast the 54-seat Senate majority and 254-seat House majority Democrats won, and that both totals could expand as ballot counting continued. Scott Colom had not yet been declared the winner of Mississippi’s knife-edge Senate contest; Mississippi had not sent a Democrat to the chamber since 1982. The Guardian said there had been plenty of evidence before Tuesday’s vote that Republicans were in for it.

The Guardian said parties in power historically suffered defeats in midterm elections, Donald Trump’s approval ratings had fallen with voters even on issues where he had previously polled well, and Democrats had surged in special and off-year elections. Sen. John Curtis of Utah said, “People are mad, and they have a right to be mad. They’re disappointed, and they feel like we haven’t delivered, and we deserve exactly what we got.” His state was deeply red, according to The Guardian, but last Tuesday Democrats managed to break the Republican supermajority in the Utah House of Representatives by gaining at least 14 seats, a shift repeated in legislatures across the country.

Over the previous two years, the Guardian said, Republican lawmakers oscillated between doing what Trump wanted and standing aside, including when his actions appeared to conflict with Congress’s constitutional role. They sprinted to pass Trump’s main domestic policy bill before the 4 July Independence Day holiday last year, voted down efforts to end the war with Iran, which Congress had not authorized, and efforts to repeal his tariffs. Republicans faced a bipartisan rebellion over the investigation of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein before ultimately voting to release documents Trump had insinuated would come out if he were elected.

The Guardian characterized the result as the worst midterm election a party had suffered since the aftermath of the Watergate scandal in 1974. Glenn Thompson, the Pennsylvania Republican chairing the House agriculture committee, said, “Every election, at the end of the day, it’s a pocketbook issue.” He predicted brighter days were “within months” because of the “long-term success of the president’s policies,” then said, “Unfortunately, all those things are going to happen too late for this election.”

Davidson, the Ohio representative among a small group of House Republicans who voted against the Iran war, said, “If we had delivered on those things that we campaigned on in 2024, we would have probably had a different election outcome.” Asked what Republicans had failed to accomplish, he said: “You can drill down on a number of things, but you know, it’s a mix. But I think a lot of people felt unheard, and they went out to make sure they got everyone’s attention.”

Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said Republicans made a mistake by slashing Medicaid in the One Big Beautiful Bill and imperiling the finances of rural hospitals. “Congress spent months talking about how we can cut Medicaid to the bone, and you know, simultaneously, as it turns out, they’re finding ways to fund data centers. Big mistake,” Hawley said. The Guardian described Hawley as an anti-abortion lawmaker and a Christian and reported that he had announced an hour of fasting and prayer next month for people “worried about the direction of the country” under the incoming Democratic majority.

Congress still has several major tasks before the year ends. Government funding expires on 11 December and must be extended, ideally through the following September. A major defense policy bill and a long-delayed agricultural measure remain unfinished, and both will need support from both parties to advance.

On Capitol Hill, new Democratic members attended orientation. In the tunnels beneath the Capitol, Sherrod Brown, Ohio’s once-and-future Democratic senator, fielded questions from a crowd of reporters, while Maine’s Troy Jackson, Texas’s James Talarico and New Hampshire’s Chris Pappas were spotted pushing through a crowd outside the Senate chambers. All four were on Capitol Hill for new-member orientation. A Guardian caption showed senators-elect Talarico and Abdul Al-Sayed speaking with one another after a photo spray with other newly elected Senate Democrats.

Donald Trump said he wanted to work with Democrats in areas where he believed a deal could be reached. The Guardian reported that few in the Republican Party believed he meant it, particularly after he appointed Stephen Miller, whom the Guardian described as an immigration hardliner, as chief of staff. The Guardian also reported that veteran Texas Sen. John Cornyn was leaving office after Trump orchestrated his primary defeat in favor of Ken Paxton, only for James Talarico to beat Paxton. Cornyn said, “It’s going to be fascinating to watch,” and added that he would do so “from my TV.”