Senate Majority Leader John Thune is working on his pitch to persuade voters to turn out for the Republican slate of candidates during the 2026 midterms.
Following a major victory in passing President Donald Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, the majority leader is turning his focus to selling the public on the president’s landmark law, one of several prongs in his midterms success playbook to expand Senate Republicans’ 53-seat majority. Though Democrats are hitting the stump to argue the legislation is harmful to most Americans, Thune is calling on Republicans to defend their “record of accomplishment” and articulate a compelling message about the law’s benefits that will motivate voters to go to bat for Republicans in 2026.
“You’ve got to have a very targeted, focused way of turning voters out, and be able to deliver your message to them so that they’re motivated and have a reason to turn out,” Thune told the Daily Caller News Foundation from his office Wednesday, previewing his midterms strategy. “It will be a full on effort to make sure that the American people fully understand what was in the ‘big, beautiful’ bill and how it impacts and benefits them.”
Both Republicans and Democrats’ early messaging ahead of the midterms suggests Trump’s tax and immigration law could be a defining issue of the 2026 election cycle. Whether Republicans are successful in winning the messaging battle could determine the course of Trump’s final two years in office.
Republicans may have more work to do in informing voters of the law’s benefits given recent polling showing a majority of those surveyed viewing the president’s signature legislative accomplishment unfavorably. Opposition to the law outweighed support by ten percentage points, according to a Wall Street Journal poll published Thursday. The survey also found the legislation is viewed unfavorably by 54% of independents.
However, Thune and other Republicans are betting that voters will be open to persuasion and that many of the bill’s individual components will ultimately be viewed as popular. No Democratic lawmaker backed the president’s signature law and many dubbed the measure the “one big, ugly bill.”
A majority — 54% — of Americans said the law’s provisions permanently extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts, temporarily shielding certain Americans from taxation on tips and expanding tax relief for seniors and parents were more of a reason to support the bill than oppose it, according to a July CNN poll.
One Nation, a public advocacy organization linked to Thune, began running an eight-figure advertisement campaign in six states Wednesday emphasizing the law’s tax components.
“America is back — thanks to President Trump and Leader John Thune’s working family tax cuts,” an ad running nationally says in part. “Real relief for every American up early and home late.”
“That I think is probably the first message out of the gate,” Thune said regarding the outside groups’ “working family tax cuts” messaging. “But there’s a lot of stuff in the bill that you can talk about,” Thune said, mentioning a $1,000 tax-free contribution to a savings account for children born between 2025 and 2028, slowing the rate of spending in entitlement programs and a new tax maneuver subsidizing private school tuition.
Some Senate Republican hopefuls are already highlighting how the tax provisions will put more money back into the pocketbooks of their constituents.
“Our waitresses and waiters all across the state just got a huge lift by not having to pay taxes on their tips,” former Republican Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, a Trump-backed candidate running to flip Michigan’s open Senate seat red, told the DCNF on Saturday. “These are direct things that impact working families.”
Senate Democrats who opposed the law could be vulnerable to attack lines claiming they voted to raise taxes, accordingto recent polling. Just 12% of voters in four battleground states opposed “working family tax cuts” messaging, a July poll commissioned by One Nation found.
The group launched a $5 million ad campaign torching Democratic Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff’s vote against the president’s tax relief and immigration law on July 17. Ossoff is viewed as the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent running for reelection in 2026 due to the state’s Republican tilt and Trump carrying the state in November.
Democratic lawmakers are planning to use the August recess to make their case for why the president’s bill will hurt everyday Americans. Some have pledged to travel to Republicans’ backyards and hold rallies in GOP districts and states.
Thune hinted that Republicans will need to leave Washington for at least part of August to counter Democrats’ messaging.
“The month of August, historically, has been an opportunity for our members to criss-cross their states and hit the events and interact with people and be out there on the stump delivering the message,” Thune told the DCNF. “So we want to make sure that opportunity is available to them — whatever we do in terms of nominations.”
Thune has threatened to keep the Senate in session during August to grind out the president’s nominees awaiting floor consideration if Democrats do not agree to a deal to fast-track confirmations.
The majority leader is also making strides in the other buckets of his midterms strategy: raising an avalanche of cash to tout Senate Republicans’ record across a variety of platforms and recruiting “quality candidates” to face off against Democratic challengers.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, outraised its Democratic counterpart by roughly $8 million during the first six months of the year. The Senate GOP leadership-aligned Senate Leadership Fund and its affiliates also smashed a fundraising record for the first half of 2025, bringing in roughly $85 million.
Thune is also working with the president to ensure electable candidates are positioned to win the Republican nomination in key swing states.
The majority leader will head to North Carolina this fall to fundraise for RNC chairman Michael Whatley in an effort to hold the seat in 2026, Axios first reported. Whatley, who is expected to announce a Senate bid for the open seat as early as this week, will enter the race with the president’s endorsement.
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