Senate

Top GOP super PAC: Senate majority at risk

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by Ryan Mancini - 04/30/26 8:00 PM ET

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by Ryan Mancini - 04/30/26 8:00 PM ET

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The Koch-backed Republican super PAC Americans For Prosperity (AFP) warned in a memo that the GOP-controlled majority in the Senate is at risk unless senators focus on the cost of living.

AFP’s senior adviser Emily Seidel and Executive Director Nathan Nascimento pointed to the risk and warned that internal polling suggests that “for the first time, Democrats are more trusted on the economy and inflation,” according to the memo obtained by The Hill and first reported on by Politico.

They said that although the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act has made “important progress,” they warned about the impact that the war in Iran has had driving energy costs up “touch virtually every product Americans buy.”

“Any failure to center the campaign on what voters actually care about –– pocketbook concerns, above all –– opens a plausible path back to a Democratic Senate,” they warned.

Seidel and Nascimento suggested that failing to win key seats in both chambers could mean “a small number of unaligned Members will determine the direction of federal policymaking on the issues that matter most to the families we talk to every day.”

“This is especially true in the Senate,” they continued. “The senators elected in 2026 will still be in office in the early 2030s –– a period when the country will face some of the most consequential policy decisions of the next generation.”

The policies they lay out included reforms to Social Security, the national debt, long-term economic growth and nominating justices to the Supreme Court. Candidates elected to the Senate in November “will cast the votes that define the next era of American governance,” Seidel and Nascimento said.

They urged Republican senators and senate candidates to use every opportunity they can to make their case for what is being done to lower costs.

Cost of living and affordability were driving forces during last year’s special elections, where cities and states saw major Democratic victories. President Trump dismissed affordability as a “hoax” perpetuated by Democrats before rolling out his own response going into 2026.

But the price hikes caused by the war in Iran resulted in a 3.5-percent increase in inflation in March, up from 2.8 percent in February, according to the Commerce Department. AAA’s data shows that the national average for gas in the U.S. spiked to $4.30 on Thursday as the closure of the water route for around 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas, the Strait of Hormuz, drags on.

Rising prices also caused Americans to sour on the president’s handling of the economy. The Associated Press-NORC Research Center last week found that Trump’s handling of the economy slumped to a 30 percent approval rating. Polling by Fox News found that 52 percent of respondents say Democrats would better handle the economy, an edge not seen since 2010.

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