Cliff Maloney

America is worth fighting for.

“I blame this on @GregAbbott_TX. I blame it on @DanPatrick . I blame it all on our leadership. Thinking they’re going to go for four terms as Governor. Four terms as Lt. Governor. Seriously?! If they campaigned on lowering your property taxes all that did is remind everybody why you didn’t do it 12 years ago.” - @DonHuffines #txlege

I am deeply grateful to the people of Wyoming for the trust you have placed in me. It is an honor to be chosen to represent the people of Wyoming in Congress, and I will work every day to make you proud. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to every voter, volunteer, and supporter, who stood with us throughout this campaign. Thank you for those who voted and made their voices known. I also want to thank everyone who stepped forward and put their name on the ballot. Thank you to Lisa Kinney, Shawn Johnson, and Jeff Haggit for running. They deserve credit for stepping up and making the case for their visions. The time is now to look past the election and work together to help all of Wyoming. My focus is to continue to work for the people of Wyoming and to listen. I look forward to working with the people of Wyoming to address the real challenges we face and to protect the Wyoming way of life.

Congratulations to Representative Joe Sweeney on his reelection to the New Hampshire House of Representatives for Rockingham District 25! Joe's experience in public service and his work on state financial matters reflect his focus on responsible budgeting and accountable government. As a Citizens Alliance New Hampshire Pledge Champion, he has committed to protecting constitutional freedoms, promoting fiscal responsibility, and preserving the principles of limited government. Citizens Alliance New Hampshire is proud to have endorsed Joe and congratulates him on another term representing the people of Salem!

One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over was "composition"—whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept on telling us the same story: in some states turnout was merely OK, in other states it was downright amazing, and in no state was it catastrophic. There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up. So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we're going to shock the world? "No," he told me. "We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us." Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026. There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is. One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch. I’m sure that’s true. But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone. Another pollster—one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were: 1) End the war 2) Focus on cost of living/inflation 3) Put America First 4) Change our relationship to Israel Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many spent Monday attacking Rachel Campos Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, it turns out her political advice was sound. (She’s also a great person.) In the next few months, there's going to be a lot of gaslighting. Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. I'm open to the idea that we should change enforcement—by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you. The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night. If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there. I remain hopeful about our country. To the people who are pissed off and want to say, “I told you so”: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.

WATCH: @Maloney “As much as this is a horrific night, there’s an opportunity that comes from this.”