MIDTERM UPDATE: Republicans are Getting Destroyed
Photo Credit: Texas Attorney General Website
James Bialota | Opinion | Oct 14, 2026
We're going to talk national politics today and see why the Republicans are suffering so bad in the midterms. Is it tradition, or is it something worse? Traditionally, those that hold both houses and the Presidency going into the midterms see a drastic change, and usually the houses flip. We're not just looking at the House, though. This looks to be a Senate flip, which could be devastating for the Republican party for all the wrong reasons.
Trump endorsed some really awful candidates this year, and yes, many of them won the primary. But, are they going to pull off a general election win because they're so vile to the mind of most conservatives? That's what we're seeing; some of these Republicans that were endorsed have so much baggage they need to ship their stuff American Express.
And that's what we're looking at. Nationwide endorsements went out to, for unknown reasons, cherry picked candidates in the primary, including a lot of the establishment. Some people are scratching their heads, saying "I thought he was going to go to jail."
And, no, I'm not just talking about Marty Jackley.
Texas
Look at Ken Paxton in Texas. Ken Paxton is down to a Democrat in a red stronghold state like Texas. Why? We're looking at the data, and he's got investigations going on for a long time. Every traditional sin, in the oldest and newest ways. He's been accused of fraud, forgery, bribery, infidelity, etc. Specifically in 2020, he was reported by conservative attorneys in his office of engaging in bribery and abuse of office by aiding
friend and political donor Nate Paul, an Austin real estate investor. Paxton hired an outside lawyer to investigate Paul's claims that the FBI had improperly searched his home, according to the Associated Press. He was also sued for firing whistleblowers in 2020. Where does that sound familiar, South Dakota? And, just so you know Ken Paxton is the Texas Attorney General. Are we starting to see some similarities to South Dakota?
Just last year, his wife, a State Senator divorced him for infidelity. In the whistleblower filings, the trial ended with a settlement, costing the state taxpayers of Texas $6.6 million.
This is what's going on here in South Dakota as well. Whistleblowers have come forward, and the Attorney General's not doing anything about it, and instead seems to be helping cover it up.
And they're going after his Paxton's Liberal opponent for things that are not issue related; calling him a vegan and accusing him of being a homosexual. Although that might get clicks on Facebook, that does not resonate well with the voters. They want to hear about taxes. They want to hear about the economy. They want to hear about the border. And they're really sick of some of the crap.
Nebraska
Some of these other races are just as bad. Look at Pete Ricketts versus Dan Osborne (an Independent) in Nebraska. Recent polls show them very close, within the margin of error (about 1%). Ricketts has huge PAC donations, and is viewed as an out of touch DC politician.
Unfortunately, he's the Republican.
Osborn's running on a populist platform supported by non partisanship. He's a former union worker and leader. He's connected extensively with rural voters, and is seen as actually a true Nebraskan. He doesn't align clearly with either party, and the race
is being compared to what's going on with Brian Bengs and Senator Mike Rounds in South Dakota. Brian Bengs, the Independent in SD, has come out claiming he plans to not partake with either party. His history doesn't exactly marry that, but we'll see where the future lies.
Maine
In Maine, you have Senator Susan Collins versus her challenger, Troy Jackson. Susan Collins has not been a favorite of the GOP for a long time. She's not necessarily a Thomas Massie type, but a type that flopped on a lot of issues supporting liberals.
Why is this? Maine used to be a red state. Now it's purple, if not blue. Why? Well, these little tricks that Obama and Biden pulled about importing, shall we say immigrants (when they're really third country nationals from crap hole nations like Somalia) isn't exactly new. Bill Clinton did this famously in the 90s and imported I think twenty-something thousand Somalis to southern Maine, which changed the entire southern Maine voting district. Tell me how that's not electioneering. It's exactly what they did in Minnesota. We saw that, and now Minneapolis Saint Paul is now called Little Mogadishu.
Eastern South Dakota has some of the same issues now. It's not just from traffic coming from Minneapolis; Kristi Noem invited them here (thank you Kristi, we really appreciated that).
Why is this happening?
So why are these politics nationwide flopping at the general election for the Republicans? Well, we let horrible candidates win in the primary, and not necessarily win, per se, as much as it was big corporate dollars going to corporate sellouts to get on the ticket.
We have the Iran war. How many people were promised no new wars? I was. We were hoping that it was true. The one thing Trump was famous for and hated for in his first term was delivering on what he said. This time he's famous and hated for not delivering on what he said.
We were promised the Epstein files. That's not coming. They've been delayed, hampered, and restricted. We were promised prosecutions. Where is that?
We had the Trump assault on Thomas Massie's campaign. Trump came out against him, and they spent tens of millions of dollars to get rid of someone who most conservatives thought was one of our best. He was Charlie Kirk's favorite legislator. Really? That's where we are now? Attacking the First Amendment and going after
Charlie Kirk's favorite people because they had a disagreement with the President?
Now, don't get me wrong. President Trump has done a lot of great things, but he's also made some errors. If you're not allowed to call out the mistakes to get them fixed, how does anyone in this country move forward?
Kristi Noem was one of those errors. She should have never been appointed. She didn't have the expertise, the skill, and let's just say, for lack of better terms, the brains to handle an office like that. She had a career packed with taking deals to put herself in front of the camera, and billing taxpayers to do it. She (allegedly) made deals with her donors, like the current one being exposed right now, where she, on her last day (or days) in office as Homeland Security Secretary gave a boondoggle of an airplane buy (allegedly, Noem disputes evidence). People are shocked nationwide, asking; "Why would she have bought the airplanes for that much money? We would have never thought that!" Well, you should have listened to South Dakotans. She did the exact same thing here first.
And, do you know this, state of South Dakota? The state doesn't own one single fixed-wing aircraft for firefighting. Hasn't this year been tough, with the drought and fires. Wouldn't it been nice, instead of having a Governor's fleet of travel planes, having maybe one or two State-owned firefighting aircraft? That would have been nice.
Also, the modern tariff policy has bit people right in the butts. They tax Americans on foreign products. Now, I don't necessarily disagree with tariffs. What I disagree with is what we were told - where the money would go. We were told, and for good reason, that it would go to pay the national debt, because once we got rid of the national debt it would actually cut the national budget each year by one and a half trillion dollars (which is the interest on the debt).
Trump promised mass deportations, which most people think, "okay thank you." But the
but the numbers actually show a drop of only 3% (per Gregory Bovino interview by Tucker Carlson on Aug 26th, 2026). That isn't exactly mass deportations. It's certainly not the masses. Is it a hard job being President? Yes. Is it hard to get evidence? Maybe. I suggest starting with the IRS, where all the people claim that they're foreigners living in America with 15 to 60 write offs for dependents that live out of the country. That would be a great place to start. And, as a double bonus, stop a massive IRS fraud in this country. Why doesn't ICE start there? Get rid of all of those people defrauding the IRS, getting tax returns for nothing.
It's going to be a tough year for Republicans, since they couldn't keep their promises. Buckle up.
