If the Republicans really are afraid of losing control of Congress, if they truly believe their backs are to the wall, there’s nothing for them to lose by going hard at the Democrats starting now until Election Day.
The overwhelming amount of available polling data shows most critical races are even or headed in the wrong direction. For a midterm, that may not be so bad, but the stakes in 2026 are very high.
What’s happening, says more than one election analyst, is that Republican support for its slate, and for President Donald Trump, has collapsed while Democrats, animated by the infusion of hard-left candidates running on Medicare for all, packing the Supreme Court, and the persecution of Trump and the people who work in his administration, are surging.
That makes it a problem of turnout, which means the GOP needs to do something to turn up the juice. That thing might be an ad, focusing on recent threats by Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) to go after members of the administration with such ferocity that no young person would be willing to take the professional or personal risk to serve.
Speaking at the University of Chicago on Oct. 13, Slotkin said Democrats, if they win, should “pick signature cases” and “not just focus on the president, but on the people who enabled him.” Then came the part that should alarm every Republican voter: “I want young people coming out of school to say, ‘Should I go work for the Trump administration? Like, that sounds fun, I might get an opportunity.’ I want them to be like, ‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want and so let me avoid participating in that.’ I want that deterrence message sent.”
FILE – Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., speaks during a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
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Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) speaks during a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Photo)
" data-large-file="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/elissa-slotkin.jpg?w=1024" src="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/elissa-slotkin.jpg?w=1024" alt="Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) speaks during a hearing at the Capitol" class="wp-image-4775140" srcset="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/elissa-slotkin.jpg 1024w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/elissa-slotkin.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/elissa-slotkin.jpg?resize=768,512 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px">
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) speaks during a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Photo)
Read that again. A sitting Democratic United States senator isn’t promising to root out wrongdoing wherever it’s found. She is announcing, in advance, that the purpose of her party’s investigations is to frighten. The target isn’t a crime; it’s a career choice. The message to a 22-year-old conservative with a fresh diploma and an interest in public service is simple: Don’t.
Slotkin’s defenders say she meant accountability for genuine misconduct, and she has pointed to allegations against specific Cabinet officials. But that isn’t what “deterrence” means, and it isn’t what she told a room full of students. You don’t need to deter young people from crimes they haven’t committed. You only need to deter them if the goal is to make sure the next Republican administration can’t find anyone willing to staff it.
Those are the stakes, and Republicans should say so plainly.
The ad the GOP should run opens on a black screen. A voice says, ominously: “These are the stakes.” Cut to Slotkin, in her own words: “I want them to be like, ‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want.’ … I want that deterrence message sent.”
The screen goes black again. A deep, unhurried voice of God booms: “These are the stakes. If you don’t vote on November 3, it’s just like voting for what Democrats like Slotkin are saying. You’ll be voting for political smears, harassing lawfare, and a deliberate campaign by Democrats to keep Republicans from participating in the American system. If you don’t vote on November 3, that’s what you’ll be voting for.”
A silent beat, then: “This election is too important for you to stay home. Go to the polls and vote for freedom, for fairness, and for the Republicans. This election is too important for you to stay home.”
No music swell, no flag montage, no candidate on a porch with his family. Just the senator and the choice she is offering.
The genius of the spot is that it requires no exaggeration. It puts no words in anyone’s mouth. It lets a Democratic senator explain, on camera and in a friendly setting, what her party intends to do with power. The ad doesn’t have to argue that Democrats would weaponize congressional oversight. Slotkin already made that argument for them.
It also speaks directly to the voters Republicans are losing: the disaffected, the tired, the ones who’ve convinced themselves that sitting out one midterm won’t matter. What moves a discouraged voter is the realization that staying home carries a cost, and that the cost will be paid by their kids, their neighbors, and the young people who might otherwise have gone to Washington to serve.
TRUMP’S TIME TO STRIKE AN IRAN DEAL IS RUNNING OUT
Democrats understand this instinctively. Their base is energized because it believes the stakes are existential. Republicans have been slower to make the same case, partly out of complacency and partly out of reluctance to look like they’re fighting dirty. But there is nothing dirty about quoting your opponent accurately. It’s the cleanest political argument there is.
Election Day is less than two weeks away, and the window to change this race is closing fast. The GOP has spent millions on ads forgotten by the next commercial break. This one wouldn’t be. Thirty seconds. A black screen. A senator’s own words. And a simple warning: “The stakes are too high for you to stay home.”
A veteran journalist formerly on staff at U.S. News & World Report, UPI, and other outlets, Peter Roff regularly produces commentary on current political and public policy matters for domestic and international outlets. You can reach him at RoffColumns AT GMAIL.com and follow him on social media @TheRoffDraft.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
