While conservatives were dealt a heavy blow in November, losing to their Democrat challengers in the Virginia and New Jersey governor races as Democrats pushed voter turnout to near-presidential election levels, there are warning signals that Democrats are the party headed into a civil war in 2026. Democrats are significantly more critical of their own party than Republicans are of the GOP, and optimism about the Democrat Party has rapidly eroded since President Donald Trump’s first term.
Republicans are running in a precarious position next year as members of the incumbent party presiding over an economy that is still recovering. Inflation slowed to 2.7 percent growth the past 12 months, down from 3 percent in September according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Average weekly earnings in the private sector are up 3.5 percent over the past year as well.
However, there is still a delay among voters in recognizing the economic recovery, with the latest Economist-You-Gov survey showing only 23 percent of Americans say the economy is good or excellent, 34 percent say it is fair, and the greatest number (39 percent) say the economy is poor.
