‘There’s No Juice Left to Squeeze From MAGA’

The speakers discuss how the 2026 midterm elections unsettled assumptions about which parties can win in different parts of the United States. They suggest that some voters who backed Donald Trump were not committed Republicans, and that Democrats’ gains may reflect those voters switching sides as well as strong Democratic mobilisation.

The article reports that Democrats won 56 per cent of the House popular vote, a result E.J. Dionne Jr. describes as an unusually large victory, while Republicans had received 4.5 million fewer votes and Democrats 15 million more than in the previous comparison. Tim Carney points to shifts in formerly pro-Trump areas in Ohio and Pennsylvania; Dionne also highlights Democratic candidates Adam Hamilton and Scott Colom as examples of the campaign’s personal outreach and local organising.