Republican candidates highlight healthcare in 2026, battling voter distrust

WASHINGTON — Facing a challenging re-election bid, seven-term Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., says he’s not surprised that voters distrust the Republican Party to improve their healthcare.

“I can’t say that Republicans have done much about it,” Perry told NBC News before the House left last week for a lengthy election recess. “We’ve even passed some things here, but they don’t make it anywhere in the Senate. So, you know, people want results, not talk.”

Healthcare is shaping up to be a vulnerability for the GOP in the 2026 midterm elections , when Democrats hope to capture the House and the Senate. According to this month’s NBC News poll , voters trust Democrats over Republicans on healthcare by 22 points. A New York Times-Siena College poll similarly found that likely voters preferred Democrats by 24 points on the issue.

Still, Republicans are leaning in and highlighting the issue, with many of them using populist rhetoric criticizing insurance and drug companies. The goal, according to three GOP strategists, is more about trying to narrow the Democratic advantage than expecting to win on the issue.

In ultracompetitive Michigan, Senate candidate Mike Rogers is running an ad inveighing against high prescription drug costs relative to Canada. Rogers, a former Republican congressman who is calling for price transparency rules for hospitals and insurers, held an event Saturday attacking Democratic rival Abdul El-Sayed’s “Medicare for All” proposal.

“I just can’t think of a more important issue to the people of Michigan than healthcare — their costs, their rising costs and how we get to the bottom of it,” Rogers said at the healthcare-focused event in Taylor. “He wants Medicare for all. I want Medicare for seniors. They’ve earned it, they’ve worked for it, let’s improve it, let’s get it going.”

In Iowa, Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson launched an ad in May saying “healthcare companies are ripping you off” and that she’s “working with President Trump to take on big insurance companies.”

In a New Jersey swing district, Republican Rep. Tom Kean is running an ad lamenting that too many families “suffer because of big insurance companies.” Kean, who missed four months of work in the House citing treatment for depression, touted his bill to boost Labor Department authority to enforce mental health rules for insurance plans.