John Kennedy Gets Serious: Lays Out What Senate GOP Needs to Do Before Dems Take Control
Sen. John Kennedy is not only one of the sharpest wits in the upper chamber of Congress, he’s also one of the sharpest minds — and he proved that again with a speech this week on the Senate floor.
In a 15-minute discourse on Veterans Day, Kennedy outlined the reasons for the Republicans’ midterm election disaster and plotted out the course the GOP needs to follow in the brief few weeks before the 120th Congress opens in January.
It was solid, workmanlike, and on target for a party in its closing days of congressional power. And whether the party follows through is going to have an impact lasting much longer than the next two years.
We need to put down our juice boxes and listen very carefully to the American people. I have.
I’m committed to spending whatever time it takes to get our work done. https://t.co/ziNZnTAFVi— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) November 13, 2026
Democrats won on Nov. 3, he said, because they “did a better job of acknowledging the economic pain of the American people.”
“People who get up every day and go to work, pay their taxes and obey the law, try to do the right thing by their kids, and try to save some money for retirement are falling behind,” he said. “And they concluded that Washington was not listening and did not care. And Republicans were in control of Washington. I think that’s what happened.”
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Now, there is probably a sizable part of the Republican base that might disagree with Kennedy about that. While it’s true that Democrats running on “affordability” had a lot to do with the Republican rout, it’s just as likely that conservative disgust over D.C. Republicans’ inability to get President Donald Trump’s agenda passed — especially the election-integrity SAVE America Act — was the ingredient that truly gave Democrats their win.
And the re-election of South Dakota Sen. John Thune as Republican Senate leader after the midterms didn’t mollify anyone on the right.
But, as Napoleon might have thought after Waterloo, “What now?”
So, what are Republicans to do with the time remaining for them to hold majorities in the House and Senate?
Priority No. 1, Kennedy said, is to act like grown-ups.
“The first thing we ought to do, as Republicans still in charge, is put down our juice boxes and listen,” he said, “Listen to the American people.
“The second thing that we need to do is stop the bleeding, pick ourselves up, and fight …
“It will be easier for us to fight now, while we’re still in control.”
And one major front in that fight is nominations — “presidential appointments and judicial appointments” — that have come from the White House but have not been confirmed by the Senate.
“If we don’t confirm these people, our Democratic friends will not, I can assure you,” Kennedy said.
Given Senate rules that allow minority parties to slow the confirmation process, that will take time. And Kennedy said he personally is willing to work through the upcoming holidays to make sure that happens.
Beyond confirmations, he said, Republicans should resort to the reconciliation process — a category of votes that require only a Senate majority for passage — to appropriate $200 billion for the military that Democrats are unlikely to approve.
“If we don’t do it now, it’s not gonna get done,” he said.
And finally, he said, passing an anti-fraud bill proposed by Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst to fight fraud in federal programs should be at the top of the Senate’s list.
Those should be solid, standard-issue MAGA goals in 2026, but this is the post-midterm 2026, after Republican defeats in previous strongholds like Texas and Mississippi proved how weak the party’s leadership is with its base.
The social media reaction was surely not what Kennedy would have been hoping for. Among more than 2,000 comments, it’s tough to find one that wasn’t blasting Kennedy, Thune, or the GOP as a whole.
This one captures the spirit of the rest — without the obscenities that peppered so many:
You are such a fraud. You are all talk and no action. You allowed Thune to become Leader again and did absolutely nothing to get the SAVE ACT passed or let the President have his recess appointments. People are not buying the Hee Haw Act anymore.
— SJ Close the Border! Trump 2024! (@sandrajaniga) November 13, 2026
And this one said much the same, but a little more politely:
John, I want to be respectful here. You guys lost,who was ever left, by putting Thune back up again. I don’t know if you guys really realize how that was the last straw for everybody. We have no faith in you guys anymore. You guys didn’t put enough pressure on Murkowski and Collins when you needed to, you didn’t pass the SAVE Act and these are the results we live with now. Hell, you guys couldn’t even pass daylight savings time. This is something that a majority of the people wanted, but you let Tom Cotton stand in the way of even that. We give up on you. I’m sorry. I had no party anymore.
— Pepper (@QueenChilPepp) November 13, 2026
(Recriminations have their place, of course. As does purity of motivation and spirit. And future generations will no doubt be awed at the purity of motivation and spirit shown by the millions of ostensibly conservative voters who used the Nov. 3 election to allow leftist Democrats to take over the House and Senate for Trump’s final two years of office in order to satisfy their own political vanity. The ghosts of Gettysburg swell with pride.)
Nay-saying aside, Kennedy’s prescription for action in the GOP’s remaining days is dead on, and deadly important. The behavior of Democrats since Trump entered on the political scene has proven the party’s dependence on twisting laws and law enforcement to its own ends. It’s imperative that Republicans staff the judiciary now with as many qualified, conservative candidates as possible before a Senate Democratic majority makes that impossible for at least the next two years.
Legal decisions a decade or more from now could well hinge on what Republicans accomplish before Jan. 3, 2027.
Kennedy’s critics should remember that.
No fair person can argue the Republican Senate hasn’t been a disappointment. It has, and everyone knows it. But no fair person can argue Kennedy’s points aren’t well placed.
Someone said this,” he said.
“‘A smart man washes his hands after he urinates,'” Kennedy said. “‘A wise man doesn’t urinate on his hands.’
“We need to stop urinating on our hands.”
That’s a sharp wit. And a sharp mind.
And given the midterm results and Democrats’ likely behavior in power, that’s serious advice for conservatives as a whole.
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