In 2026 Midterms, It's MAGA Against the Rest of America
Trump's failed second presidency is repelling everyone outside his loyalist core.
Fox News recently published stunning poll results for the Senate race in solidly-Republican Ohio: Democrat Sherrod Brown led GOP incumbent Jon Husted, 53% to 45%.
In an era of metronomic partisan polarization, that eight-point Democratic margin in Ohio almost defies belief. But an intra-Republican fracture explains it: Only 4% of those aligned with Donald Trump’s MAGA movement backed Brown, but 31% of “non-MAGA” Republicans crossed party lines to support the Democratic candidate.
That snapshot reflects an emerging 2026 picture that does not resemble a familiar face-off between evenly-matched Republican and Democratic two parties. Instead, the midterm elections increasingly pit the MAGA minority against the American majority of everyone else.
“This phenomenon is part of what underlies the Democrats’ overwhelming success in 30-plus special elections” during Trump 2.0, says Geoff Garin, a top Democratic pollster. And it fuels the party’s growing optimism about capturing not just the House but also the Senate by winning states like Ohio that present-day Democrats routinely lose.