MIDTERM MENACE

Karl Rove Warns of One Big Ugly Problem for the Republicans

George W. Bush’s top political adviser says voter frustration could prove costly at the midterms.

Karl Rove has warned that a surge in the number of unaffiliated voters could pose a problem for Republicans at next year’s midterm elections despite a favorable Senate map.

The GOP strategist, known as “Bush’s Brain” for his outsized influence in the George W. Bush White House, appeared on Fox News’ Sunday Night in America with former South Carolina Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy and contended that a wave of Senate exits holds both opportunity and risk for the GOP.

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“Yeah, I think that’s right,” Rove said when asked if the Senate has “lost its allure” after Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis confirmed they would not run again. “The Senate map, fortunately, for the Republicans, is good. That is to say, most of the seats that are up next year are in red states where the likelihood of winning the Senate race in Idaho for the Democrats is very small.”

But Rove cautioned that frustration with Washington is costing the party. “Yes, it is a sign of, sort of like people’s exhaustion with the way politics is conducted today. And we are going to lose some good people as a result.”

The veteran strategist pointed to battleground states. “The Republicans are going to be trying to win the open race in Michigan, they’ll be trying to knock off an incumbent Democrat in Georgia, but they will also have to be defending an open seat in North Carolina,” he said.

Michigan has an open seat, while Sen. Jon Ossoff is up for re-election in Georgia. In North Carolina, Tillis is retiring, leaving his seat open. Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell has also announced that he will not seek re-election.

In these key states, the demographics have shifted. “The Republican registration numbers have gotten a lot better, but the number of unaffiliated voters has grown faster than the number of Republican net gain by about a margin of eight to one, and that’s a problem—actually, four to one,” Rove noted.

“That’s a problem. So the electorate next year that the Republicans and Democrats will both have to be focused on are people who are up for grabs, and whoever makes the better case to them, whether it’s a race for the Senate, House, or governor, will be in a much better situation.”

Gowdy, who also served as a federal prosecutor in South Carolina between 1994 and 2000, closed by pointing to their “mutual friend” Sen. Tim Scott, who is running his own re-election. “Tough job. Good map, but a tough job,” he said.

President Donald Trump last week called Rove a “Republican in name only,” after the strategist said he only won the 2024 election because voters couldn’t face four more years of Joe Biden.

“RINO Karl Rove, when asked on Fox & Friends this morning how to explain the tremendous success of the Republican Party, with millions of people joining it, and the Dems losing millions, was unable to give an answer. He just couldn’t utter the words, PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP! But that’s OK, the PEOPLE get it, and always have!!!” POTUS raged in a Truth Social post.

Rove has earned Trump’s ire on many fronts, including by blasting his handling of tariffs, the economy, and the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the wrongly deported Maryland dad.

He has also warned that there will be “hell to pay” for the administration’s botched handling of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

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