Battleground Republicans are breaking from President Donald Trump with increasing frequency as Election Day draws closer and the party fights to protect its congressional majorities.
With just three weeks until voters head to the polls to decide who controls Congress for the latter half of Trump’s term, some Republicans are putting distance between themselves and Trump as the party faces significant political headwinds.
Veteran GOP strategist Doug Heye told Fox News Digital that such a strategy at this juncture was “not a surprise.”
“It happens in midterms when presidents aren’t popular,” Heye said. “Add to that the more outlandish things he’s done — often on things that have nothing to do with lowering costs, ending the war with Iran, etc. — this was bound to happen.”
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It’s a similar situation to what’s played out with past presidents during a midterm election year, most recently with former President Joe Biden in 2022.
And the Republican National Committee (RNC) is arguing that the party is united behind Trump, while conceding that GOP candidates have individual stakes.
“Unlike the Democrats who are in a full-blown civil war with extremists, Republicans remain united behind the president’s agenda of cutting taxes, lowering drug costs and securing our communities. We are laser-focused on winning, and our candidates will run the races necessary to best represent their districts and prevent Democrats from taking control,” RNC spokeswoman Natalie Baldessarre said.
And running their own races is what several are notably doing, balancing individuality with their support for Trump and the GOP base.
At least two House Republicans, Reps. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., and Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., have touted conflict with Trump in advertisements.
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Kiggans is out with a new ad touting herself as “one of the most bipartisan members of Congress,” who has taken on her “own party to protect jobs, and working with Democrats to save healthcare.” One visual referenced a news article that said, “Kiggans bucks Trump on offshore wind.”
Meanwhile, Lawler recently released an advertisement in which he highlighted taking on “the left and the right,” followed by a clip of Trump calling him a “pain in the a–” on state and local tax deduction issues.
But for many, like Lawler, it’s a balancing act of trying to keep Trump and the GOP base happy, while courting independent voters.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said, “No one can dispute the fact that President Trump has created one of the most robust coalitions in political history with the MAGA movement, and the president understands how to communicate with them.”
“President Trump is the unequivocal leader, best messenger and unmatched motivator for the Republican Party, and he is committed to maintaining Republican majorities in Congress,” Ingle told Fox News Digital.
“The president signed the largest working-class tax cuts in history, lowered the cost of prescription drugs, sealed the border, drove violent crime to the lowest level in nearly a century, unleashed an energy revolution, added more than a million private-sector jobs and sent Americans’ 401(k)s climbing to record highs,” Ingle continued. “The choice has never been more clear: doubling down on President Trump’s winning, commonsense agenda or the Democrats’ extreme liberal policies and obstruction.”
Still, the political tightrope was on full display when Lawler appeared on stage at Trump’s midterm convention in September, when he noted he and the president didn’t “always agree.”
He told Fox News Digital at the convention, “I fundamentally believe if you want to get things done, you have to be able to work with whoever the president is. And it’s why I’ve consistently been rated among the most bipartisan and effective members of Congress.”
Former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Sen. John Husted, R-Ohio, also notably appeared at Trump’s convention in Dallas.
They have, however, split from Trump on some key issues in an effort to show daylight between themselves and the president.
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They have called for an end to the Iran war and have diverged from Trump on data centers — the president declared on Truth Social shortly after the midterm convention that “the only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor.”
But it’s a key sticking point for several Republicans on the trail who recognize the bad optics the hulking, windowless behemoths have with voters. Many, including Husted and Rogers, don’t believe it’s an issue that the federal government should have total dominion over.
“What we’ve said is there should be a moratorium until we get all of the voters’ decisions and questions answered,” Rogers told Fox News Digital during the convention. “These are big decisions. I don’t think there should be a federal ban, because if the federal government can ban it, it can also tell you have to have one.”
Another vulnerable GOP lawmaker who broke from Trump on the issue of data centers is Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Mich., who has maintained that it should be a decision for local governments whether to allow such facilities in their backyards.
“When you have people colluding with these corporations to come in and build a data center, before people in the community even know about it, because of these non-disclosure agreements, I think that violates the trust that people have or don’t have with their local officials right now,” Barrett said on Fox News’ “The Big Weekend Show.”
Barrett is also one of a small handful of House Republicans who has consistently voted against the U.S. operation in Iran without congressional approval. The Middle East conflict has gained a steady stream of GOP opposition the longer it’s gone on, as evidenced by the growing number of Republicans voting for Democrats’ war powers resolutions in the House.
Among them is Rep. Marianette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, who previously voted with the GOP on similar measures until the most recent such vote in mid-September.
And Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, who voted against reining in Trump on Iran, noted on the Woo & WayCo podcast last week, “We need to get out of this war quickly.”
“What [Trump] did to stop a nuclear danger is a beautiful thing, but right now, you know, I don’t think anyone can cut a deal with Iranians, because you can’t trust them,” Miller said.
The Ohio Republican’s re-election chances are up in the air amid a slew of domestic abuse allegations from his ex-wife and former father-in-law.
He did notably appear at Trump’s rally in Youngstown, Ohio.
Trump’s plan to import foreign beef has also gotten some pushback from vulnerable House Republicans like Miller-Meeks and Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa.
Nunn, another battleground Iowan, introduced a bipartisan bill last month that would suspend Trump’s plan while directing the federal government to find a strategy to grow domestic cattle numbers.
And some candidates, like Rep. Tom Kean, R-N.J., do not mention the president on their websites at all. References to Republicans on Kean’s site are few and far between, but it touts him as an “independent leader standing up for what is right for New Jersey.”
A separate White House official argued that Republicans distancing themselves from Trump “could not be further from the truth — President Trump is still the unequivocal leader of the Republican Party.”
