The 2026 midterm elections present a tough environment for the Republican Party, raising questions about how to campaign in such challenging circumstances. As is often the case in American politics, the economy is a central concern for voters. In the last few weeks, prices—particularly for gas—have been too high for the comfort of any incumbent party. What have Republicans been saying to assuage voters’ concerns?
Some have taken a kind of high road, encouraging or even admonishing voters to rise above self-interest and consider the loftier aims President Trump and his administration are pursuing. Yes, gas prices may be high, but the president is trying to end the Iranian threat to American national security. This process is taking longer and causing more economic pain than anyone would like. But it is worth it for the nation in the long run, and so patriotic voters should toughen up. So the argument runs.
This approach, however, has no shortage of critics. They think it is futile or worse (maybe insulting) to tell ordinary voters, whose economic means are increasingly limited, to grin and bear higher prices on the necessities of life. This environment, they suggest, is a recipe for electoral disaster for the Republican Party.
The critics have a point. It is never prudent for any political party—especially a pragmatic, competitive party that hopes to win elections and not just advance philosophical arguments—to appear indifferent to the ordinary self-interest of voters. To make this error is not only to misread the present American electorate, but to misunderstand human nature, the basis of politics at all times and in all places. This is not to say that a successful political party must appeal only to narrow self-interest. Voters can respond to appeals to moral principle and national pride. Nevertheless, to neglect self-interest is to neglect one of the vital springs of human conduct. The party that does this as a regular practice courts defeat.
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