GOP helpless to stop MAGA from digging their grave: analysis

Intelligencer writer Ed Kilgore says “virtually every Republican political strategist agrees that the economy, and particularly the cost of living, will be the dominant issue in the 2026 midterms.”

Too bad MAGA isn’t letting the Republican Party go there.

“Convincing swing voters that [President] Donald Trump is decisively bringing back the best-ever economy and lowering the price of essential goods and services — which he promised to do a thousand times during his 2024 campaign — is the key to the Republican Party’s hopes of defying the odds and hanging on to control of Congress in November,” said Kilgore. “It’s reinforced by many polls that show the economy is the No. 1 concern for voters, and that there’s a great deal of anxiety, some of it generated by the rise of AI and the immense power of billionaires on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, that goes beyond prices at the gas pump and the grocery store.”

The voters know what they want, said Kilgore. But MAGA wants something else — and it’s MAGA that pulls the GOP levers.

“… [J]ust as the midterm campaign season begins in earnest, Trump’s MAGA movement, and perhaps Trump himself, are showing signs that they really don’t want to dwell on the economy beyond braying that it’s better than ever, blaming Democrats for every problem, and implying that unhappy Americans are ingrates,” said Kilgore. “… [At his State of the Union, Trump] churned through the affordability passages in a sleep-inducing manner and only came to life when he could return to savaging immigrants and the Democrats who defended them. And now a reenergized MAGA movement is waging a two-front war to keep immigration front and center in the national political discourse.”

But centrist voters who decide the November election are looking at their mounting bills, not the folks picking sweet potatoes or cleaning hotels, said Kilgore.

In addition to low-traction anti-immigration hype, Kilgore said MAGA is pushing hard on making it harder to vote — which is not only a low-interest issue with voters, but also not going to happen.

“… MAGA influencers are joining Trump in insisting that congressional Republicans make promoting the SAVE Act, their top, and perhaps only, priority this year,” said Kilgore. “… [but] SAVE Act proponents understand perfectly well that it will never see the light of day in the Senate.”

“Any way you slice it, a day spent ventilating about the completely made-up noncitizen-voting scourge (and all the attendant conspiracy theories and election denials justified by this myth) is a day when Republicans are not addressing affordability,” Kilgore added. “That might be fine with MAGA activists, but GOP candidates in purple states or marginal districts will surely think otherwise.”

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