Opinion
By Karl Rove
With less than three weeks before the midterm elections, candidates had better know what they’ll say every day. Their battle plans should be well-defined by now, target voters in focus, resources well-deployed, staff and volunteers executing, everything hitting on every cylinder.
All campaigns, Republican and Democratic, are counting on party leaders to help shape national messages. For Republicans, that means President Trump, then GOP congressional leaders. While Democratic House and Senate leaders can’t compete with the White House megaphone, the party’s candidates expect them to help set the tone.
How are both sides doing? Let’s look at last week, starting with Republicans.
Last Monday, Oct. 5, Mr. Trump issued an executive order allowing long-haul truckers to use “dyed diesel.” This is diesel meant for off-road use by farmers in combines and tractors and for home heating. Dyed diesel doesn’t pay the 24-cent-a-gallon federal highway tax, since it powers equipment that isn’t driven on highways.
That sounded good to the untrained ear. But while truckers appreciate the gesture, most dyed diesel is already committed by fuel distributors to the farmers and ranchers who are their regular customers. Still, the president sounded as if he was doing something about “affordability,” the great 2026 watch word.
But then things went south. No big news for Republicans on Tuesday, but what little emerged was troubling. The president’s two top political operatives had traveled to Bosnia and Herzegovina to pick up extra income consulting for a Kremlin-backed party in the breakaway region that styles itself Republika Srpska. U.S. consultants of both parties have found foreign campaigns to be lucrative but generally pursue such business “off season,” not in the final days of a crucial American campaign.
On Wednesday the Journal broke the news that the U.S. ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, asked a Republican donor to pay off $100,000 on her American Express card just before her Senate confirmation hearing in July 2025. This week she resigned.
On Thursday, the Pentagon announced the Fort Hood shooter, an Army officer who killed 13 on-base in 2009, will be executed by firing squad with his execution livestreamed.
That same day, the administration halted green-card applications for eight tech companies, including Microsoft and Adobe. Vice President JD Vance singled out Microsoft, accusing it of replacing every worker it laid off “with 1½ foreign indentured servants.”
On Friday Mr. Trump announced he’d lift sanctions on Russian diesel, a move that may violate U.S. law. He then posted on Truth Social that diesel prices “will be COMING DOWN, IN RECORD NUMBERS, AND FAST!” That’s very unlikely.
On Saturday, Mr. Trump complained about not receiving an award he covets. “I should have won 8 Nobel Peace Prizes,” he posted. Later in the day, he said “I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”
On Sunday Mr. Trump declared an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Both countries, he asserted, wouldn’t strike power plants, the grid or refineries. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that the announcement was “news to me” but indicated his nation would support the pause if Russia actually honored it. Russia struck the Ukrainian power system, leaving 600,000 without electricity.
What to make of all this? Little said last week will help GOP candidates. The bulk of White House messaging last week had nothing to do with swaying undecided voters.
But at least the president’s announcements about diesel, though of dubious “affordability” impact, were specific. To people outside agriculture, energy and long-haul freight, they might have seemed helpful.
What about Democratic national messaging? There is none, because there is no clear Democratic agenda. In June House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries appointed five task forces to develop one. The healthcare task force already reported to him. But no recommendations from any group have been made public.
It’s obvious what’s going on. Democrats are betting that trashing Mr. Trump is enough and don’t care about their agendas. They’re almost certainly right: Democrats will flip the House, and the Senate is a toss-up. But victory without an agenda carries a cost. Democrats will have no mandate for whatever policies they pursue, and none of the unity and purpose a national framework would have provided. Opposition to Mr. Trump may hand Democrats the gavel. It won’t give them a direction.
The column by Mr. Rove, courtesy of KarlRove.com, was first published in The Wall Street Journal.
Karl Rove served as Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush from 2000–2007 and Deputy Chief of Staff from 2004–2007. At the White House he oversaw the Offices of Strategic Initiatives, Political Affairs, Public Liaison, and Intergovernmental Affairs and was Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, coordinating the White House policy-making process. Notably, Mr. Rove was known as “The Architect” of President Bush’s 2000 and 2004 winning campaigns.