WASHINGTON — The head of House Republicans’ official campaign arm, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), is “very bullish” that the GOP will cling to the lower chamber despite historical headwinds.
Since 1938, the party in control of the White House has lost House seats in all but two midterm elections. But Hudson, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), contended that Donald Trump is historically a unique president.
“I’m very bullish,” Hudson told The Post in a brief interview last Thursday. “This last election was kind of a unique election because … you had one president for four years, Donald Trump, And then you had another president for four years, Joe Biden, with a completely different agenda.”
“Then you had a referendum where people got to pick which of the two they wanted for the next four years,” Hudson continued.
Trump is the second-ever president to win a nonconsecutive term in the White House after Grover Cleveland in 1892, who won his rematch against Benjamin Harrison in an election where tariffs were a top issue. Cleveland fought to roll back tariffs.
Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance have acknowledged the difficulties of Republicans defying history and holding onto the House in November.
“If you go back a long way, the sitting president, whether Democrat or Republican, always loses the midterm. There is something deep down psychologically with the voters that they want maybe a check or something,” Trump told Fox News’ “Hannity” in an interview that aired last week.
The only times in the past roughly nine decades when the party in control of the White House didn’t lose House seats in the midterms were 1998 and 2002.
Democrats have pointed to their strong performance in last year’s off-year elections in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere. Sometimes off-year elections can be a preview of the midterms.
“There is an enthusiasm gap that happened in last year’s elections. So that’s a warning sign,” Hudson admitted. “If you ignore that, that can come back to bite you. But we’re very well aware of that.”
“And we’re also aware of the fact that there’s a lot of voters that show up to vote for Donald Trump when he’s on the ballot and then don’t show up when he’s not,” he went on. “[Trump has] committed to me he’ll be out on the campaign trail.”
Part of the thesis many Democratic operatives have had for their victories last November was that their focus on affordability resonated with voters. Hudson rejected that theory.
“They broke it. Like, we want to trust them to fix it?” Hudson shot back.
Trump has made it publicly clear that he intends to hit the campaign trail for Republicans heading into the midterms.
The president has also taken on initiatives aimed at undercutting Democrats’ messaging on affordability, including those aimed at capping credit card interest rates and lowering the price of housing, among other steps.
During an address at a mini GOP policy retreat last week, Trump warned Republicans about the stakes of the election, predicting that he’ll be impeached if Democrats take over the lower chamber.
Eager to stop Democrats from recapturing the House, Trump has also mounted a pressure campaign on red states to redistrict aggressively to squeeze out as much of an advantage for Republicans as possible.
Looming over the midterms is a forthcoming decision from the Supreme Court about Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act that could shake up certain races in Republicans’ favor.
Hudson also contended that, in addition to the Trump dynamic scrambling historical precedent, the House GOP has quality candidates, and the “economy’s getting better.”
The NRCC boss predicted that as people start to feel the impact of Trump’s policies, including the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, voters will warm up to Republicans once again.
“I think we can go back to the voters and say, look, you voted for these policies and we delivered,” Hudson said. “The American people asked for a change and we’ve delivered.”
