Republicans still hold Congress for ten more weeks. That narrow window is all that stands between the conservative majority on the Supreme Court and a Democratic Senate that will treat every future vacancy as an opportunity to remake the judiciary.
Politicos in Washington are calling the midterm election results a “Blue Tsunami.” Democrats walked away with full control of Congress, along with stunning upsets at the state level in many Republican strongholds. The path back to power in 2028 now looks improbable, if not impossible, for the GOP.
Retiring Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, for all his flaws, understood exactly how to use time like this.
To be clear about McConnell and his relationship with the America First wing of the Republican Party: The two are not aligned. He’s gone as far as comparing conservative anti-war sentiment to 1930s isolationism and a threat to U.S. standing abroad. His opposition to the America First agenda helped stall critical legislation. He never met a foreign war he didn’t want to fund via taxpayer money. His wife, Elaine Chao, had dubious ties to the Chinese Communist Party while they were in office.
Yet, still, he would have treated these weeks as a final sprint to protect the Republican Party’s chances at future political power.
When Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, giving then-President Barack Obama the chance to nominate Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, it almost seemed inevitable that the confirmation would succeed. The Republican-controlled Senate, led by McConnell, refused to hold hearings or a confirmation vote for the rest of the year. This all-out blockade led to Justice Neil Gorsuch’s eventual confirmation.
Then, in September 2020, when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died 46 days before the presidential election, McConnell put his foot on the gas to get Justice Amy Coney Barrett confirmed. The accelerated nomination and confirmation process was the quickest since Justice John Paul Stevens in 1975. His move solidified the conservative majority. Despite the baggage he carries, which the Daily Caller has thoroughly documented, this was his greatest achievement. (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)
The biggest problem for the GOP is that this task (protecting conservatives’ path to political power) now rests on Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s shoulders, who has already shown he’s too weak for the moment. He repeatedly refused to take the necessary steps to pass the SAVE ACT. Several of President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominations died on the vine. District judges repeatedly issued nationwide injunctions that slowed or blocked immigration enforcement, and Thune made no meaningful repudiation of the runaway judiciary. Congress has full authority to limit the jurisdiction of lower federal courts if needed. Yet, no serious jurisdiction-stripping legislation on deportation cases was forced through, no core executive immigration orders were codified into statute, and no must-pass vehicle was used to lock those changes in place.
Tonight I joined Laura Ingraham on Fox News. https://t.co/Dnz63tktxd
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) November 5, 2026
Under his leadership, Senate Republicans looked ineffective and posed no threat to Democratic governance. It has been an unrelenting frustration for American voters to witness.
The remaining weeks of Republican control are now the last period in which the GOP can limit the damage that will follow once the new Congress is sworn in.