Midterms Offer Another “Time for Choosing” for the American People

In just a few days, millions of Americans from across the country will head to their local polling station to vote in the midterm elections. While the dynamics behind midterm elections are always more complicated than the binary choice voters face in a presidential election, there are some worrying trends in our politics that make this election particularly important.

I had the privilege of representing Kansas’s 4th District from 2011-2017, and in that time I had no shortage of dust-ups with my colleagues on the opposite side of the aisle. But I knew that, while we might have vigorously disagreed over policies, the overwhelming majority believed in the promise of America and wanted the best for our country.

Unfortunately, in 2026 I see an opposition party that has become increasingly dominated by individuals who actively dislike this country and its values, and want to degrade the institutions and principles that have made us great. Increasingly, it seems that the party is divided between the radical, Democratic Socialist vanguard and the conventional politicians who are too frightened to stand up to them.

Let’s be clear: If socialist politicians like Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, or Melat Kiros in Colorado are elected on Tuesday and take control of Congress, leftists will be emboldened to pursue their most radical policies – and Americans will suffer.

Whether it’s building a European-style welfare state, opening our borders or refusing to maintain public order, American leftists want the same kinds of policies that have created the chaos we see today on the streets of France. Far from tackling high prices, a left-wing Congress will give us high prices by design, particularly energy prices. Massachusetts, California, New York – all of our most expensive states with the highest gas prices are run by Democrats.

Americans rightly voted Joe Biden out of office because they recognized that his progressive policies created runaway inflation, a de facto open border, and weakened our position on the world stage. But for the new party vanguard, these Biden-era policies don’t go far enough. They will seek to abolish borders; bankrupt our health care system with Medicare for All; undermine law enforcement at all levels and accommodate our enemies. We can have little doubt that they will immediately push to pack the Supreme Court; what other elements of our Constitutional order that stand in their way will be next?

We all know American politics is far from perfect. There are plenty of priorities that our government has not yet delivered on, and the frustrations that voters feel over issues like affordability are absolutely legitimate.

That’s exactly why we need to send non-radical, solutions-oriented legislators to Congress – not leftist ideologues. Republicans are fighting to lower costs, unleash American energy, secure the border, and grow opportunity. They’ve made serious inroads on important issues that matter to the American people. Measures like the Working Families Tax Cut put more money back in the pockets of hardworking taxpayers. The repeal of a raft of Biden-era regulations has been a boon to critical sectors of our economy and is helping to drive down costs for consumers. The border is the safest it has been in years, and respect for the rule of law has been restored.

Of course there’s a lot more work to be done. So the question for voters is: Who do you trust to do that work?

Long before he became president, Ronald Reagan delivered what would become one of the most famous speeches in our political history, colloquially known as “A Time for Choosing.” In the speech, Reagan brilliantly articulated the fundamental difference between the conservative vision of America and the Big-Government, statist approach which he saw as fundamentally incompatible with individual liberty.

On Tuesday, Americans will face another time for choosing. Will we go down a path of leftist policies that have consistently delivered nothing but dysfunction, lawlessness, and immiseration?

Will we elect unapologetic antisemites and terror apologists to the world’s greatest deliberative body?

Or will we remember that the achievements, institutions and principles that make this country great are hard-won but easily lost?

As self-governing citizens, voting is one of our most important rights. I pray that my fellow Americans choose well on Tuesday.