GOP lawmakers are growing increasingly concerned over signs the 2026 midterm elections could be a wipeout for Republicans that could cost them control of the House and shave down their Senate majority by two or three seats.

There’s growing anxiety in the Senate and House GOP conferences that Trump’s sinking approval rating will create a headwind in swing states and districts.

But GOP lawmakers say they still have time to improve their party’s image before next November.

  • Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip
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    1 day ago

    What do you mean why? The electoral college has been utterly broken since they froze the number of house seats in 1929. It gets worse every year as population increases. This causes low population states to have way more representation in the House, influence over the presidency, and through that and the Senate, the SCOTUS, than they’re designed to. And since racism seems to play well to the rural folk who love to vote against their own interests, this has given Republicans a significant advantage.

    This is on top of the blatant gerrymandering that Republicans do in red states (look at Ohio which voted under maps that were deemed illegal). And the blatant voter suppression actions taken every cycle.

    Are corporate Democrats also failing to be appealing? Yes, but that doesn’t mean the board isn’t also tilted against them. The fact that Clinton had like 8 million more votes in 2016 but still “lost” is proof. SCOTUS stealing the election from Gore is also proof.

    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      The low limit on the house is a problem for representation in general, but it doesn’t change the presidential election much. Trump would have still won the election if there were 800 representatives in the house, though it would have been closer.

      The popular vote is irrelevant for the presidency, so your proving my point by bringing it up. It’s not relevant to the rules of the election.

      • Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        False. The distribution of seats requires a lot of skewing to fit the vastly different sizes of populations.

        I’m not proving your point at all. The fact that we don’t listen to the cast majority of people to represent the country as a whole is dumb. The fact that your presence in a state that votes differently from you actually works AGAINST you, is even dumber.

        • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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          21 hours ago

          The apportionment formula is straightforward, you can find calculators to see what would happen as more representatives gets added. It’s not magic.

            • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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              8 hours ago

              The system is fine, the cap is too small, but that could be fixed, and much more easily than making a new system.

              • Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip
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                7 hours ago

                The system is extremely flawed and the cap made it more broken. Winner take all in almost every state makes it actively detrimental to the majority of voters.