Trafalgar Group chief pollster Robert Cahaly said the nine-point margin of victory for Republican Matt Van Epps in last night’s special election for Tennessee’s seventh congressional district, where Trump won by 22 points last year, is a warning sign that the MAGA message is not getting out. “The Republican Party isn’t doing the job it needs to at putting out the record… That messaging isn’t getting out there beyond conservative media,” Cahaly said Wednesday night with FNC’s “Ingraham Angle.” “We just got through Thanksgiving Day with three football games that had incredible ratings. Where were the ads touting Republican accomplishments? This is something that needs to be a year-round project. The Democrats have the entire mainstream media hitting 90% of the Republican electorate,” Cahaly said. “We cannot rely on just the President and just conservative media to do it. There has got to be real work put into this.”

ROBERT CAHALY, CHIEF POLLSTER, THE TRAFALGAR GROUP: Well, the nine-point victory is a little more concerning when you look at the fact that [former Rep. Mark Green] won by 21.5 when Trump was on the ballot. But if you go back to 2022, he also won by 21 points then. And the fact is, that was an election that was supposedly not a very good election for Republicans. So to me, that causes a lot more concern, comparing it with the 2022 midterms-the high-water mark. This is very significant. The problem, I think, is a messaging problem. I don’t think it’s time to panic, but to retool. I think we need to recognize the system is broken, and the Republican Party isn’t doing the job it needs to at putting out the record: no tax on tips and overtime, and MAHA making your food better, people aren’t crossing the border. To people across the board, that messaging isn’t getting out there beyond conservative media. … LAURA INGRAHAM: Doesn’t it come down to what Trump and Scott Bessent were talking about yesterday? The economy is moving in the right direction. Obviously, interest rates have to come down, and the President wants that to happen. That’s been artificially hurting the economy. But if Bessent is right, and the economy really takes off in the first half of next year, moving into the fall, that’s really it. Isn’t that going to be the bellwether for whether Republicans hold their majorities or even, perhaps, increase their majorities? He’s either right or wrong on what’s going to happen. ROBERT CAHALY: Absolutely. I mean, if you ask the average Republican, would you rather the economy be great in the fall of 2025 or the fall of 2026? They would obviously say 2026. And you add an increasingly improving economy, with interest rates that may at that point be falling, and maybe the home mortgage game going again-it could be a really good mix. The one thing the Republicans should take-and you were right, the President can’t lift all of this-there needs to be a better effort to put the message out there. You know, just waiting to dump a bunch of money in the last few weeks in a few specific states or congressional districts, that system is broken. We just got through Thanksgiving Day with three football games that had incredible ratings. Where were the ads touting Republican accomplishments? This is something that needs to be a year-round project. The Democrats have the entire mainstream media hitting 90% of the Republican electorate. And we cannot rely on just the President and just conservative media to do it. There has got to be real work put into this.

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