Donald Trump’s Republican party faces a challenging outlook for the upcoming congressional midterm elections, according to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, July 27th, 2026, exactly 100 days before the November 3rd midterms, Jeffries said the Republicans have “nothing to run on” after Trump broke campaign promises to lower costs and avoid overseas wars.

Jeffries highlighted that despite a July 21st announcement from Democratic New Jersey Governor Mike Sherrill revealing that 6,600 noncitizens had registered to vote due to a software error—with fewer than 400 voting before the error was corrected—Trump and Republican allies used the incident to promote false claims about voter roll integrity. Jeffries suggested this was a distraction from more pressing issues.

He argued that Republicans prefer this strategy rather than addressing the consequences of the US and Israeli militaries beginning conflict with Iran in February 2026, following Trump’s 2024 re-election despite his promise not to start “endless wars in the Middle East.” Jeffries said, “It was Donald Trump … who said that he was elected not to start wars, endless wars in the Middle East, but to stop them – and then turned around and has gotten us involved in this reckless war of choice in Iran that has skyrocketed gas prices on the American people.”

Amid soaring gas and grocery prices, 95% of Americans believe the US is facing an affordability crisis, according to exclusive polling for the Guardian. Jeffries told State of the Union host Dana Bash, “Republicans … have failed to actually deliver on making life more affordable for the American people. It was Donald Trump who promised to lower costs on day one.”

He further emphasized the economic struggles facing many Americans: “Too many people are working hard – they’re playing by the rules, but they can’t thrive. And they can barely survive, not enough food on the table, not enough gas in the tank, unable to actually regularly and consistently afford to pay the rent or pay the mortgage.”

Jeffries and fellow Democrats are aiming to take control of both the US House and Senate from Republicans in the midterms.

Sources