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The Senate Republican campaign chair has a stark warning for his party as the GOP defends its 53-47 majority in the chamber in this year’s midterm elections.
National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chair Tim Scott pointed to a ballot box deficit the GOP’s facing in a new national poll, saying it could impact specific Senate races this year.
And Scott said that the toughest challenge may be in Maine, where longtime GOP Sen. Susan Collins is running for re-election in the blue-leaning northern New England state.
The straight talk from Scott, which came at a closed-door meeting Tuesday with fellow GOP senators, comes as Republicans, as the party in power in the nation’s capital, face traditional political headwinds in the midterms. But the GOP is also facing a rough political climate, with President Donald Trump’s approval ratings remaining underwater while Democrats are energized as they work to win back the House majority and possibly recapture the Senate.
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An exterior view of the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol, on Jan. 12, 2026. (Paul Steinhauser/)
Scott, in his briefing, pointed to the Democrats’ six-point margin over Republicans on the generic ballot — which asks respondents whether they’d back the Democrat or Republican candidate in their congressional district without mentioning specific candidate names — in the latest national poll. Scott’s briefing was first reported by Axios and confirmed by Digital.
Maine, which Scott pointed to, and battleground North Carolina, where Republicans are defending an open seat in the race to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, are the Democrats’ top two targets in the 2026 election cycle.
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“The Democrats are targeting a number of our incumbents. And so we’ve got some races that are going to be expensive and hard fought in places like Maine and North Carolina,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters following the NRSC briefing.
But Thune added, “We feel really good about… where our Senate races are.” And he emphasized that “incumbents in our conference are seasoned veterans who will outwork any of their opponents.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., center, arrives for a news conference after a policy luncheon on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Washington (Mariam Zuhaib/AP Photo)
The poll was the latest national survey to give Republicans pause.
More than half (54%) surveyed in the poll, which was conducted Jan. 23–26, said the nation was worse off than it was a year ago, when Trump took office, with only 31% saying the U.S. was in a better position. And only three in 10 said the economy was in excellent or good shape.
The Democrats’ brand image remains in negative territory, according to the latest polls. But thanks in part to their laser focus on the issue of affordability amid persistent inflation, Democrats scored decisive victories in the 2025 elections, and have overperformed at the ballot box in other off-year and special elections since the start of Trump’s second administration.
That was vividly illustrated this past weekend, when Republicans suffered a stunning setback at the hands of Democrats: a double-digit shellacking in a special Texas state Senate election, in a Fort Worth area district that Trump won by 17 points in 2024 just 15 months ago.
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Thune said the special election results in Texas “remind us that we need to up our game and do a better job of not only putting up a record of accomplishment for the American people, but then, being able to deliver that message. And I think if you look at what we’ve accomplished in this last year, it’s a it’s a terrific record of accomplishment for our candidates to run on.”
Thune pointed to the GOP’s sweeping “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” Trump’s signature second-term domestic achievement, which includes numerous tax cuts that many voters will feel this spring.
President Donald Trump signs sweeping spending and tax legislation, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” during a picnic with military families to mark Independence Day, at the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 4, 2025. (Reuters/Ken Cedeno)
“I think what happened in Texas should capture our attention and remind us that we need to up our game and do a better job,” Thune said. “We’ve got to get out and tell that story. And I think over the course of the next several months, we’ll do that.”
Scott, in a Digital interview late last year, touted that “2026 is shaping up to be the year where Donald Trump’s activities, his actions, the legislation we’ve passed, shows up for the American voter. And consumers all across the country will see a more affordable economy because of President Trump and the Senate majority and the House majority in the hands of the Republican Party.”
Democrats are happy to have that fight.
“President Trump is creating a toxic agenda that’s harming people,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) Chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand told Digital last month.
And she added she’s “optimistic that we have a shot to take back the majority.”
Gillibrand argued that Trump “is creating this massive backlash because of his bad and hurtful and harmful agenda,” which she said “adds more to the map.”
Besides Maine and North Carolina, Democrats are also trying to flip GOP-held Senate seats in Texas, Ohio, Alaska and Iowa, which are all red states.
But they’re playing defense as they defend open seats in battleground Michigan, swing state New Hampshire, and blue-leaning Minnesota. And the NRSC’s targeting battleground Georgia, where they consider first-term Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff very vulnerable as he seeks re-election.
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While Scott offered a sobering presentation to his Senate GOP colleagues this week, he told Digital in December that in the battle for the majority, “54 is clearly within our grasp right now, but with a little bit of luck, 55 is on our side.”
Asked about Scott’s aspirations to pick up one or two seats, Gillibrand last month responded, “No chance.”
