For the next couple of months, one of my recurring themes is going to be that while we are just months since the election in 2024, the race is already heating up for the midterm elections in 2026. The results of that election will determine how effective Donald Trump will be in the final two years of his presidency, and that is incredibly critical.
As we stand today, April 24th, 2025, there are currently 557 days until the midterm elections occur on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026. Hence, my focus and the importance I place on this.
Michigan did go to President Trump in 2024, but contrary to people who take credit for his victory and did little to achieve it, and claim Michigan is now a red state because of their work, Michigan is still a blue state.
I have written about this and talked about it on my radio show, which has, of course, made those folks very upset, but I don't worry about feelings; I'm more concerned with facts. In my post from back in 2023 called Michigan Is a BLUE State and Lying About It Won't Change That Fact, I made this point...
So, let me start with some basic facts to make sure we are all on the same page.
Michigan, since the 2002 election of Jennifer Granholm and her re-election in 2006, has elected progressive-leaning candidates. The hiccup of “republican” Rick Snyder who raised your taxes, let the Flint water debacle happen, and was pro-abortion, was Democrat-Lite. Now with Whitmer elected in 2018 and just re-elected in 2022, this trend continues with the state’s chief executive.
Michigan has not elected a Republican United States Senator since 1994 with Spencer Abraham, who was defeated by now-retiring Senator Debbie Stabenow. In case you are wondering how long that is, due to your time in the state’s floundering public school system, in 2024, it will be a full 30 years since you sent a member of the GOP to D.C. to occupy a seat in the upper chamber of Congress.
Please don’t use the excuse that the GOP has picked establishment hacks to face off against hapless Democrats like Stabenow and Peters. You had newly elected (barely) to a House seat John James, face off against both Senators two years apart and lose. In fact, James only won his seat last November by just under 2,000 votes.
Michigan Republicans just lost both the State House and Senate control for the first time since before John Engler left office. The only bright spot the GOP had was control of the legislature, and now that the redistricting is out of the hands of the legislature and given to a group of citizens who are picked through some weird process, you can bet the GOP won’t be getting a favorable district any time soon.
With Mike Rogers losing his Senate bid against Elissa Slotkin in 2024, it has now been over 30 years since a Republican has been sent to the Senate from the Great Lakes State.
Yet now my attention turns from Michigan to all 435 seats in Congress and also the one-third of the seats in the Senate that will be up in 2026. The Republicans hold 220 seats in the House as we speak, and the Democrats hold 213. In the Senate, the Republicans hold 53 seats, the Democrats hold 45, and there are two independents who pretty much just vote with the Dems.
These are thin margins, and not only do they need to be protected, but added to.
Which brings me to the Democrat member of the House of Representatives from Michigan who has put her hat into the ring to become Michigan's next senator.
Haley Stevens has a track record in a video history that anybody facing off with her, who's a Republican, would have a field day with. However, the campaign announcement she put out letting the world know she would be running for Senate is quite simply a warning shot at how Democrats will run against Trump and the GOP in 2026.
So take off your partisan hat for a moment and watch this right HERE for a moment.
Of course, this ad is directed right at Southeast Michigan, where the automotive companies are still a vital part of our economic livelihood. So, some people might try to brush the overall message aside because it focuses on blue-collar workers and the automotive industry.
Yet, taking a step back, this ad is focused on one thing and one thing only: the economy.
The very thing that Donald Trump rode to victory in 2024 in a swing state like Michigan.
As I wrote earlier here at RedState, President Trump is coming back to Michigan next week, and here were his victory totals.
President Donald Trump, who won the state of Michigan in 2024 by 80,103 votes, has announced that he's finally coming back to the state for the first time since his election in November of last year and coming to Macomb County, which is the home of the Reagan Democrats.
Macomb, which Trump won all three times he has run, almost gave him the total margin of victory in the entire state in this county alone in 2024 by 69,683. The county and its blue-collar workers once again strayed true to form and chose the rebel Republican by a healthy margin.
The Stevens ad wisely focuses on the economy and doesn't touch any of the dumb third rail policies that her party is endorsing, like men playing in women's sports or issues arising from closing the border, namely, giving a hoot about people being shipped home to their countries of origin.
You may think Republicans will only need to remind the electorate of that and those issues, but that side steps the issue of what Donald Trump won on. Borrowing a phrase from James Carville, it's the economy, stupid.
Republicans will be running for the hills next year at this time, looking for answers if they don't start prepping now to give adequate responses.
Stevens gave a blueprint of what to expect, and while not thanking her directly for it and giving her donation (she is a pro-abortion person, which is weird), we should at least observe what is coming in the next election season.
Which, in case you have not picked up from the post, has already started.
So let's hope that the preparation has begun because Trump 2.0 needs four years of progress, not just two.
