Karl Rove Tells Republicans How to Win the 2026 Midterms — And Argues Trump Can’t Do It for Them

Karl Rove gave congressional Republicans a sobering warning on Sunday: They cannot depend on President Donald Trump to pull a rabbit out of his hat and help them keep control of the House and Senate during the midterms later this year.

The former senior adviser to President George W. Bush shared his game plan for the GOP to retain a congressional majority during an interview on Fox News Sunday.

His take in a nutshell: stop being conservative and start being more aggressive.

“The Republicans are falling back on the problem that most White House parties fall into in a midterm election, which is to say ‘Vote for me, I’ve done a good job, do you want more of the same?’ and they can’t do that,” Rove said.

He continued, “They’ve got to go on the offense by saying the big issues of the day, we can do better than the other side. Affordability? Where were you back when we had 8% inflation under Joe Biden? Were you, my Democratic opponent, opposed to those policies? I am.”

Rove said GOP lawmakers also need to beat their chests over tax cuts from the Big Beautiful Bill.

“Most import of all, they’ve gotta show they have another act. Not just ‘Vote for me because of what I’ve done.’ But ‘vote for me because of what I want to do. Here is the agenda I’m going to work hard for in my next term,'” Rove said. “And that agenda has to come from them — it can’t be given from the leadership, can’t come from the president. It has to come from them.”

If not, voters will view congressional Republicans as inauthentic followers, Rove added.

His analysis comes as the Dems enjoy a fairly cushy lead in most polls; the one major outlier is Harvard’s latest poll showing the two parties tied heading into November.

Watch above via Fox News.

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