Republicans were blunt about what they saw in Tuesday’s special election results, while Democrats framed the same outcomes as evidence of momentum heading into the 2026 midterms. In comments following the wins in Wisconsin and Georgia, some Republican strategists and candidates acknowledged the party was running behind recent expectations even as they pointed to stronger fundraising and cautioned against treating any single contest as a guide to November.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is running for governor in Wisconsin, delivered one of the sharpest assessments when he said, “We got our butts kicked,” according to the Associated Press. Tiffany said he was referring to Democratic victories including campaigns for the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the mayor’s office in Waukesha, a conservative suburb outside Milwaukee.
Jared Leopold, a Democratic consultant whose clients include Keisha Lance Bottoms, said Democrats had performed beyond expectations across the political map. Leopold said, “In rural, urban, red, blue, Democrats have overperformed everywhere,” adding that the pattern is a “significant canary in the coal mine about what November of ’26 is going to look like.” Democrats also pointed to other recent special election gains, including a flip in a Texas state Senate district and a win for Democrats in a Florida state House race that includes President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.
Other Republicans urged caution, arguing that the party should not panic based on special election results. Stephen Lawson, a Georgia strategist, said “the sky is not falling,” and said he also believed Republicans are in a stronger fundraising position than Democrats even as he told the party to “look at these results carefully” and recognize it is “running behind where it has been in the past.”
In Georgia, the campaign to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene—who resigned from Congress in January after a falling out with Trump—also became part of the broader midterm assessment. Clay Fuller won the special election by 12 percentage points, and a social media post by Josh McKoon, chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, said Fuller “CRUSHED” his opponent in a race that “wasn’t close.” But some comparisons raised alarms among Republicans because Greene had won the seat two years earlier by 29 percentage points, and Trump carried the district by almost 37 percentage points, according to the AP report.
Meredith Brasher, a Democratic strategist, characterized the Georgia margin as a warning sign for Republicans. Brasher said, “That’s a red alarm for Republicans.” The AP report also said Shawn Harris, the Democrat who lost to Fuller, plans to challenge him again in November.
Georgia’s political landscape remains closely watched, with key races this year including an open contest for the governor’s office. U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat, is trying to defend his seat. Charlie Bailey, chair of the Georgia Democratic Party, said his party was aiming for steady progress, saying, “We could cement ourselves, put ourselves, on the slightly bluer side of purple,” and “We’re not going to overnight turn into Colorado.”
Wisconsin’s statewide races also entered the political calculations as Democrats highlighted gains on Tuesday that expanded their majority on the state’s Supreme Court, which voted statewide. The AP report said liberals won with a 20-percentage-point blowout victory and that Democrats saw gains in red, blue and purple counties compared with another judicial race last year. Devin Remiker, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, said the results were “a very clear sign of momentum and enthusiasm for Democrats in the fall.”
Beyond the courts, Wisconsin’s governor’s race also shapes the party goals for November, with Democrats hoping to take control of the state Legislature and to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden. Mandela Barnes, a Democratic former lieutenant governor who is running for governor, said, “It’s time for us to put this thing in overdrive,” while Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said voters are upset with the Republican Party’s “brand right now.” Crowley also said, “But that doesn’t mean that they’re automatically going to come over to the Democrats,” adding that the campaign message must continue to focus on issues and values.
In Waukesha, Republicans also faced setbacks tied to local politics as Democrats made inroads in a county that has been a Republican stronghold. Democrat Alicia Halvensleben, president of the city’s Common Council, defeated Republican Scott Allen, a conservative member of the state Assembly, and Halvensleben said Trump came up “a lot” during her campaign. She said her victory came down more to local issues and to what she said was the state legislature’s failure to address them, and she warned that uncertainty at the national level was affecting voters all the way down to local contests.
“There’s so much uncertainty at the national level,” Halvensleben said. “I think that level of uncertainty is causing people a lot of anxiety, all the way down to the local level.” On the Republican side, Tiffany cautioned against overreading the results, saying “every election is unique” and adding that he was not changing his campaign strategy, which he said would focus on drawing “a clear contrast” on how candidates plan to help everyday Wisconsinites.