Bloomberg Surveillance · Monday, July 20, 2026
With the midterm elections approaching and Congress in session for limited days, the health of Senator McConnell is noted as a significant factor, potentially impacting legislative efforts like a reconciliation package. Republicans are reportedly focusing on immigration and crime as core issues, aiming to frame Democrats as 'communists' or 'far left'.
“It's extremely important when you think about the reconciliation package that they may want to pass. As the war perpetuates, as gas succeeds four dollars a gallon nationally and consumers continue to express that the president's war is unpopular. The tariffs are unpopular, is a problem. They're going to want to do something to show voters that they're paying attention. We all saw what happened with the housing bill. They're going to have a last fite at this in September, and if McConnell is not there and able to vote, that makes it really tough on members like Susan Collins and the other at risk members.”
“Yeah, Well, the hope is to just talk about Democrats as communists, is any word that they can throw at it. They talk about the far left, they talk about the populist wing of the party. And it's interesting because you see some very real similarities between those candidates and some of the agenda items that President Trump has, So it's a sort of a mixed bag. I would say that we should expect the Senate, the congressman on the Republican conference to trickle back into immigration and crime as core issues going into the election.”