{Editor’s note: Anthony Conte is a former Revere City Councilor and Massachusetts resident who now lives in New Hampshire where he is active in Republican politics. A longtime friend, conversant in the state and national GOP causes, Tony is not related to the Editor & Publisher of EastBoston.com.]
By ANTHONY CONTE
The Republican catastrophe in the 2026 midterm elections was not inevitable.
It was the culmination of years of political misjudgment, alienation of voters, and abandonment of principle under Donald Trump. Republican candidates bear some responsibility, but the overwhelming blame belongs to the President.
Democrats have captured both houses of Congress and made incredible gains in state elections. The magnitude of this defeat cannot be explained away as the ordinary ebb and flow of politics. Trump is destroying the Republican Party and threatening to consign constitutional conservatism to years of political irrelevance.
I write as a lifelong Republican, former elected officeholder, and believer in limited government, individual liberty, free enterprise, constitutional restraint, and a strong national defense. I supported Barry Goldwater in 1964.
I have even voted for Trump, holding my nose because I considered the Democratic alternative worse. But supporting Republican tax cuts and deregulation does not oblige me to defend Trump’s populism or his inexcusable conduct.
My greatest objection to Trump is not merely that he is petty, ignorant, egomaniacal, and unfit for the presidency. It is the damage he has inflicted upon the party and principles I have supported throughout my adult life.
His defenders cite high approval among Republicans. Yet during the last two election cycles, I canvassed Republican voters door to door and encountered considerable dissatisfaction with him. My observations are anecdotal, not scientific, but they suggest that partisan loyalty often masks genuine distaste.
More importantly, Republicans alone cannot win elections. Trump alienates moderate Republicans and independents while inspiring extraordinary Democratic turnout. That is a recipe for defeat.
The warning came early. In January, Democrat Taylor Rehmet won a special election in a Texas state Senate district Trump had carried by roughly 17 points in 2024, defeating Republican Leigh Wambsganss by 57.3 to 42.7 percent. In heavily Hispanic precincts, the Democratic margin reportedly surged.
Trump’s heavy-handed immigration enforcement, higher grocery and gas prices have, squandered Republican gains among Hispanic voters. His demands for favorable redistricting could not substitute for public support, and in fact worsened Republican chances by weakening incumbent Republican districts.
Economically, Trump has repudiated traditional Republican principles. Tariffs are taxes on imports, with much of the burden falling upon American consumers and businesses. Having won in 2024 partly because of voters’ anger or inflation, Trump promptly imposed sweeping tariffs that pushed costs upward and invited retaliation against exporters particularly farmers who had been his strongest supporters. His preference for a weaker dollar further risks eroding Americans’ purchasing power. Protectionism is not free-market conservatism. The smart move would be to enact legislation removing Presidential authority to impose tariffs without Congressional authorization.
His foreign policy is equally disturbing. Reagan confronted Soviet aggression and valued America’s alliances. Trump instead has treated Vladimir Putin with troubling sympathy while foolishly antagonizing NATO allies. His suggestions that Canada become an American state and that America acquire Greenland needlessly insulted friendly allied nations. China and Russia can only benefit from divisions among Western democracies. American strength requires dependable allies, not gratuitous quarrels with them.
There is also the Constitution. After a legal career devoted to lawful government, I find Trump’s expansive claims of executive power and attacks upon institutions that resist him deeply alarming. I believe his conduct warrants serious consideration of impeachment. Republicans cannot credibly defend limited government while excusing virtually unlimited presidential authority simply because the President is one of their own.
The consequences may endure far beyond this election. Democratic control of Congress threatens Trump’s legislative agenda, but more important is the opportunity for lasting institutional changes. I fear efforts to eliminate the Senate filibuster, admit Washington, D.C., or Puerto Rico as states, pack the Supreme Court, federalize elections, and expand already unsustainable entitlement programs.
Nor will Vice President JD Vance rescue the party in 2028 by offering voters another version of Trumpism. I will never vote for a Democrat, but neither will I vote for a Republican solely because he carries the party label. Particularly in New Hampshire, where independents matter enormously, doubling down on Trumpism is political folly.
The party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, Goldwater, and Reagan did not exist to serve one man’s ambitions. Its enduring principles are constitutional government, personal responsibility, free markets, fiscal discipline, individual liberty, and strength abroad. Those principles predate Trump and must survive him.
Republicans must stop inventing excuses and confront what happened on November 3rd. Loyalty to a party is not submission to an individual. The party must choose between constitutional conservatism and remaining Donald Trump’s personal political instrument.
It abandoned too many of its principles to satisfy one man’s egomania. Now it must pay the price. Trumpism must be repudiated if the credibility of the Republican Party is to be restored.
The reckoning has arrived.
