DORAL, Fla. — The lawmaker in charge of House Republicans’ elections arm is feeling confident that the GOP can buck historical precedent and hold onto their majority for the entirety of President Donald Trump’s term.
The 2024 elections saw Republicans make significant inroads with Hispanic and Black voters.
National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., said progress would continue heading into the 2026 midterm elections.
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NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson spoke with Fox News Digital about efforts to keep the House in 2026. (Getty Images)
“We’ve done well with African Americans, comparatively,” Hudson told Fox News Digital, referring to years prior. “We’ve put a lot more effort in reaching out to that community as well and letting them know that we want your votes, and we want to represent you, and we care about the issues that matter to you and your family.”
“I think we can do better, and we’ll continue to attempt to do better. But, look, our message, our values, our principles are all universal.”
He said Republicans’ values also lined up with Hispanic and Latino voters, 42% of whom supported Trump, according to the Associated Press.
“We are focused on the issues you care about,” Hudson said the pitch was. “It’s crime in your neighborhoods. It’s education for your children. It’s securing the borders. It’s the price of things for your family. I mean, these are all things we campaigned on. But we deliberately went out into the Hispanic community and said, ‘We want your vote.’ And they responded.”
Earlier in the interview, he credited Trump with delivering on those values in 2024, and argued that Trump’s policies would get Republicans over the line again next year.
Hudson credited Trump with Republicans’ victories in Congress. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Historically, the first midterm after a new presidential term serves as a rebuke of the party in power.
Democrats won the House of Representatives in a “blue wave” in 2018 during Trump’s first term. Four years later, Republicans wrestled it back under former President Joe Biden.
But the circumstances are somewhat different this time, something Hudson noted.
“We’re in a unique time in history, where you had a president serve four years with all his policies, and then he was replaced by another president who had completely different policies. . . . And then the two ran against each other,” Hudson said. “So the American people sort of had a referendum on which president they wanted, which policies they chose, and they overwhelmingly selected Donald Trump.”
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Trump is in his second term, and Hudson argued that the 2024 presidential race was a referendum between two clear White House records.
“He has a mandate that I think is unique in history. And so this isn’t a first-term president going into his first midterm. I mean, this is someone the American people know, and they’ve chosen,” Hudson said.
Hudson pointed out that just three House Republicans are in districts won by former Vice President Kamala Harris, compared to 13 House Democrats in seats Trump won. (Leigh Vogel/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Hudson also pointed out that Democrats will be defending 13 lawmakers whose districts Trump won, while Republicans only had to hold onto three seats that voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.
“The battlefield out there for us going into 2026 favors Republicans,” Hudson said.
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He spoke with Fox News Digital at Trump National Doral golf course and resort in South Florida, where Republicans held their three-day retreat to strategize their agenda.
Hudson was one of the senior Republicans who gave a presentation to fellow lawmakers during the event, where his message was: “We’re on offense this cycle.”
“We’re going to lean in. We have a lot of opportunity in those Donald Trump seats,” Hudson said he told colleagues. “We’re going to hold Democrats accountable for their voting against the policies the American people want.”
