EXCLUSIVE: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) chair says Democrats will keep their focus squarely on affordability as they aim to "take back those gavels" by capturing the House majority in next year's midterm elections.
House Democrats need to flip just three GOP-held seats in 2026 to win back control of the chamber for the first time in four years.
"We're going to hold Republicans accountable for their policies that are hurting American families," Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington State, who for a second straight election cycle is chairing the DCCC, said in an exclusive national news network interview with Fox News Digital.
High prices and out-of-control cost of living were key issues that boosted President Donald Trump and Republicans in the 2024 elections, as they won back the White House and Senate majority and kept control of the House.
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But what a difference a year makes.
Democrats, with an across-the-board focus on affordability, overperformed at the polls as they enjoyed sweeping ballot box success in the 2025 elections earlier this month. Democrats scored double-digit gubernatorial wins in blue-leaning but competitive New Jersey and Virginia, as convincing victories in high-profile showdowns in battlegrounds Georgia and Pennsylvania and left-tilting New York City and California.
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"It was clear that when folks are talking about the biggest issues affecting their communities, and right now, affordability, with the rising costs people have seen as a result of the policies put in place by this administration and Republicans in Congress, they rejected that," DelBene said as she pointed to the 2025 election results.
"Absolutely, we saw that in governor's races like Virginia and New Jersey, but [also] in races across the country," she added.
Fox News national poll released this week was another warning sign for Trump and the GOP.
Three-quarters of voters questioned in the survey viewed the economy negatively, and large numbers of respondents, including Republicans, said their costs for groceries, utilities, healthcare and housing have gone up this year.
The poll indicated that voters blame the president, with nearly twice as many pointing fingers at Trump than former President Joe Biden, when asked who is responsible for the current economy.
Only 38% of those questioned gave the president a thumbs-up to how he's handling the economy. And Trump's overall approval rating, at 41%, was the lowest of his second term in office in Fox News polling.
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"Affordability is still the number one issue for families. Housing, food, health care, child care, energy costs all going up directly as a result of policies put in place by Republicans in Congress and Donald Trump. And they promised to lower costs on day one," DelBene said.
Pointing to last year's elections, she said, "That was their big message. They were going to lower costs. It has been a big broken promise, and people are feeling that and and that's had a big impact and will continue. People want folks who are going to stand up to them for them, not just be blindly loyal to the President."
GOP Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, chair of the rival National Republican Congressional Committee, took aim at the former president, telling Fox News Digital, "There are challenges out there with the economy, because Biden broke it, and House Republicans, working with President Trump, are going to fix it, and we're working very hard to do that. "
"Certainly, we could always improve the way we communicate with our voters about it," he added. "But we are laser focused on the issues that matter to them. You know, it's the cost of things, it's the security in their neighborhood, it's a secure border. We are very focused on that, and we've delivered a lot of things that are going to make their lives better."
And looking ahead to next year, he added, "come tax season, a lot of families are going to be really happy to see they've got a lot more take-home pay, and that's because of Donald Trump and House Republicans."
The DCCC, in its messaging, has tied vulnerable House Republicans to Trump.
DelBene argued that it's "Republican policies that are hurting American families, the tariffs that Donald Trump has put in place that have raised costs for families across the country, their ongoing work to gut health care across this country."
And she charged the "policies that they have prioritized have been favoring the wealthy and the well-connected, tax breaks for the wealthy and the well-connected, but hurting working families across the country. People are feeling that, and we're going to continue to call that out."
The NRCC, in its messaging, has aimed to link Democrats facing challenging House re-elections to social New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, as it aims to paint all Democrats as far-left radicals.
"The entire Democrat Party has shifted to the left. This is Mamdani's party now," Hudson charged. "And every single House Democrat needs to answer for his policies, and they need to let their constituents know, do they stand with Mamdani or not?"
But DelBene, firing back, charged that "Republicans have no message, so they're trying to come up with something."
And discounting the GOP's messaging, she said: "the folks in Iowa and Arizona aren't focused on who the mayor of New York is. They're focused on who's running for office, who's going to stand up for them."
DelBene was interviewed as a trio of new national polls indicated Democrats with the upper hand in the 2026 battle for the House majority.
"We take nothing for granted," DelBene cautioned.
But she was confident that Democrats will "take back the house in 2026."
"Our number one goal is making sure that we take back those gavels. Have Speaker Hakeem Jeffries, actually have a congress, a House of Representatives, that's going to work for the American people and do their job as a check on this administration," DelBene emphasized.
