Are Republicans Ignoring One Of Best Ways To Maintain Influence Across Country With State Elections?

(Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP via Getty Images)

Are Republicans ignoring one of the best ways to keep the country safe and sane, that is, winning local state elections and keeping state legislatures red?

All across the country, Democrats are quietly turning the screw ahead of the midterms, picking up wins in state elections and flipping seats — and the GOP is blinking. (RELATED: Trump Faces His Next Midterm Powder Keg In Georgia)

Twenty-eight seats previously held by Republicans have now been flipped blue over the past year, hinting at a possible blue wave in November, Politico reported. Further, Democrats picked up these wins in deep-red states, including Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas, and the margins of victory were wide enough to spark concern among GOP leaders.

One Texas Republican consultant, Brendan Steinhauser, told Politico, “I’m ringing the alarm bell.”

Another senior GOP campaign operative said the results are a sign that voters who don’t always participate in elections, but came out big for Trump and Republicans in 2024, might just stay home this cycle.

People walk past campaign signs as they depart a polling location at West Gray Metropolitan Multi-Service Center on Election Day in Houston, Texas on March 3, 2026. Americans cast the first ballots of the primary season on Tuesday, kicking off a midterm cycle that could redraw the political map in Washington — and shape how Donald Trump spends the remainder of his presidency. Texas anchors the opening slate, with voters in the second-largest state selecting their candidates in high-profile Senate primaries, offering an early test of how both parties position themselves for Trump’s final two years. (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP via Getty Images)

“We’re the party of low propensity voters now,” the operative said. “How do we turn out these Republican voters in a midterm election?”

In August 2025, Democrats flipped an Iowa Senate seat, breaking the Republican supermajority in the general assembly, Politico reported. (RELATED: CNN Data Reporter Warns Democrats Might Also Take Back Senate)

Democrats broke a GOP Senate supermajority in Mississippi by flipping three out of six districts in a special election in November 2025.

Virginia and New Jersey also saw major flips in November, with Democrats picking up 13 seats and 5 seats, respectively.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) is now spending big money across the country and has put two red state legislatures, Arizona and New Hampshire, on the “flip list,” according to Politico.

There’s a reason Steinhauser told Politico that he is hammering the siren.

People vote on Election Day at a polling location at West Gray Metropolitan Multi-Service Center in Houston, on March 3, 2026. Americans cast the first ballots of the primary season on Tuesday, kicking off a midterm cycle that could redraw the political map in Washington — and shape how Donald Trump spends the remainder of his presidency. Texas anchors the opening slate, with voters in the second-largest state selecting their candidates in high-profile Senate primaries, offering an early test of how both parties position themselves for Trump’s final two years. (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP via Getty Images)

Success at the state level and more seats flipped could give Democrats more authority over judicial nominees for state courts, which would help pave a legal landscape favorable to the party’s agenda on different issues, from environmental regulation to voting laws.

It will also give them more influence over the redistricting process for congressional and state legislative districts. A greater number of Democrats in the statehouse or control of the governor’s office could help block Republican-led gerrymandering efforts, or give them the power to draw the maps and gerrymander.

And, of course, we all know what happens to a state in the long run when it is under the thumb of a strong Democratic supermajority. Look no further than the state of California.

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