Republicans acknowledge voters rejected them but show little appetite for breaking with Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Richard Hudson wanted a triumphant return to Capitol Hill this week after steering Republicans to another majority. Instead, the North Carolina Republican is facing the reality that he and dozens of colleagues will soon clear out their offices.

“It was really people coming out to send a message,” Hudson, the chair of the House GOP's campaign arm, said in a brief interview. “They, rightly so, felt gas was too high, things were too expensive.”

“The mistake Republicans made,” he said, “is we didn't convey to them that we cared about that and cared about them.”

Back in Washington this week for the first time since the GOP’s sweeping midterm losses, Republicans were in something of a daze. Even as they acknowledged the depth of their defeat, there was little appetite for a wholesale break from President Donald Trump.

Instead, they met behind closed doors to talk about what went wrong. And they scrutinized the calendar to figure out how to push through as much of their agenda as possible before Democrats assume control of the House and the Senate in January.

There was widespread frustration that Republicans who were awarded full control of the White House and Congress just two years earlier had lost touch with voters.

“You cut rural healthcare spending, when you abandon pro-lifers, when you abandon the poor, when you abandon the needy, when you abandon working people, you’re gonna get your butt kicked,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who unsuccessfully sought to delay his party’s leadership elections in the Senate. “And you’re gonna deserve it.”

“We collectively failed,” said Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., who is trailing her Democratic challenger in a district that Republicans carried by more than 18 percentage points in 2024.

“It’s very clear,” she said. “The American people let us know we have failed in this governing experience for this Congress.”

The anger is sharp in part because of the rosy predictions from top Republicans ahead of the election. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., who is also trailing a Democratic rival, said people kept telling her she couldn't lose. But she knew otherwise.

“I couldn’t get anybody to listen to me,” she said. “People just didn't think it could happen, but we knew it could.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson spent the final stretch of the campaign rejecting the historic headwinds that often befall a president's party during a midterm. He toured the country, insisting the polls were wrong and Republicans would retain their majority even as some incumbents were skeptical.

Back on Capitol Hill this week, Johnson said voters made the “wrong choice” as Democrats flipped more than 40 Republican-held seats. That puts the Democrats on track to hold the most robust majority since the early years of Barack Obama's presidency.

Republicans, meanwhile, are weighing how to proceed, balancing calls for moderation against an impulse for hard-line positions that might reenergize the party's base. Each chamber took different tracks, previewing divisions that may lie ahead.

In the House, the Republicans who will remain in Washington next year largely represent staunchly conservative districts where Trump remains popular. Their decision to elect Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan as their next leader reflected a fighting stance.

Jordan is a co-founder of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, currently chairs the Judiciary Committee and has previously chaired the Oversight Committee. From those positions, he's waged heated fights against Democrats and become a top Trump ally.

“The way that Jim fights says a lot about where this conference is,” said Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla.

In the Senate, the desire for combat was less intense.

The question for Republicans there was less about whether they would stick with John Thune of South Dakota as their leader than when they would make that decision. Hawley and a small group of conservatives spent hours huddled with Republicans in the Old Senate Chamber arguing for a delay in leadership elections to allow the party to consider alternative candidates.

But the problem was that no one would come forward to offer themselves as an alternative to Thune, who has faced criticism from Trump at times for his refusal to abandon Senate rules to make it easier to pass conservative legislation.

“It's a bad job,” Hawley said.

After hours of deliberation, Republicans ultimately backed Thune without so much as a voice vote.

“We're going to let our leader be the leader,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, who was also elected to lead the party's effort to regain seats in the 2028 election.

Perhaps the biggest question for Republicans going forward is how to manage their relationship with Trump, whose policies on trade and the war in Iran helped contribute to their losses. He's in the last two years of his second term, and the election defeats have raised stark questions about the durability of his Make America Great Again movement.

But there was no rush to distance themselves from the president as House Republicans, even those who have been critical of his administration, overwhelmingly blocked an effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Only Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who led the push alongside Democrats, broke ranks.

“What I found out tonight is they still haven’t broken from the spell of Donald Trump,” Massie said after the vote. “He still controls this conference.”

When asked whether the election was a referendum on Trump, Thune said the results stemmed from “a combination of things,” refusing to directly blame the president for contributing to the party's challenges.

But there were signs that Trump's influence had limits.

Few echoed his argument in a social media post this week that there were problems with the election. In conceding a closely fought Senate contest in Mississippi, Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith said she would “respect the decision” of voters.

Several Republicans, including Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Tim Scott of South Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas and Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, posted pictures of Democrats who will either succeed them or soon represent their states, harkening to an earlier era of postelection unity.

Rep. James Comer of Kentucky pushed back against White House warnings to congressional Democrats that planned probes of the Trump administration could amount to “blatant criminality.” Comer, who oversaw extensive investigations of Democratic President Joe Biden and his family as chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said lawmakers have a role in holding any White House accountable.

“Regardless of who is in the White House, there’s always going to be a strong desire for the Oversight Committee to be a check and balance on the executive branch, regardless of the political scenario,” Comer said.

Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed.

FILE - Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., speaks at the Republican convention, Sept. 10, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Vice President JD Vance claps as President Donald Trump gets ready to speak during an event to mark Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Sen. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., center, speaks during a news conference after a policy luncheon on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, as from right, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., listen, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, speaks with reporters after his election as House Republican leader, as Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., listen, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to reporters after leadership elections at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

CHICLAYO, Peru (AP) — Pope Leo XIV returned Friday to his beloved former diocese of Chiclayo, an emotional homecoming that underscored his love for his Peruvian flock and their pride that their shepherd now runs the Catholic Church.

The pope's Latam charter touched down at Chiclayo’s airport on the Pacific coast. On the side of the aircraft was the message that has followed Leo wherever he has gone in Peru: #LeonXIVvuelaaCasa (Leon XIV flies home).

Chiclayo, population 700,000, is the commercial hub of Peru’s northern Pacific coast. But much of the world heard about it on the night of Leo’s election, May 8, 2025, when he gave Chiclayo a shoutout, in Spanish, from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica.

And on Friday, Chiclayo was welcoming its former shepherd home.

“I’m so glad he’s returning,” said Rolando Antonio Mendoza, who was selling posters bearing the pope's image in front of the cathedral where Leo used to celebrate Mass. “Even though he’s now Pope Leo XIV, he hasn’t forgotten about his homeland.”

Church organizers say as many as a million people could turn out for Leo’s first big Mass in Peru, being held Friday morning on a massive field outside Chiclayo.

The former Robert Prevost spent two decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru and credits the place and its people with teaching him how to be a shepherd. Pope Francis sent the Chicago-born Augustinian to take over as bishop of Chiclayo in 2014 and he stayed until Francis summoned him to Rome in 2023 to run the Vatican's bishops' office.

In hindsight, the 2023 transfer to Rome signaled that Francis saw in Prevost a potential successor, since the job is one of the most important in the church and would give Prevost the Vatican experience that many consider necessary to be a viable contender for the papacy.

But Prevost's heart is in Chiclayo, where he remains beloved for championing social justice issues and for his closeness to the people, especially poor people, during times of crisis. And he had quite a few during his tenure: COVID-19, devastating floods, and a surge of Venezuelan migrants as the humanitarian situation worsened there in 2018.

“Chiclayo is a party,” said Rocio Zena, who remembered how Prevost helped her when she lost her family home in the 2023 floods. “We’re overjoyed to welcome the Holy Father with so much faith. He arrives, no longer as Prevost but as Leo XIV. And he’s coming home.”

In town, the El Trebol restaurant proudly calls itself the restaurant of the pope and his image is displayed in framed photos of Prevost riding a horse, wading through the mud in rubber boots and celebrating his birthday with a cake.

A sign on his favorite table — No. 3 — with a view of the cathedral, reads: “mesa bendita” – Spanish for blessed table. Like many other places around the city, the restaurant sells “Papaletas” or “Pop(e)sicles" with Leo's image in white chocolate.

Just a few steps from the restaurant, a life-size cardboard cutout of the pope now welcomes visitors to his former residence at the diocese, where an exhibit displays the amaranth purple, scarlet and white zucchettos, or skullcaps, that he wore as bishop, cardinal and now pope.

“I feel so happy about my work because the pope is Chiclayano,” said Cynthia Charrary, who was sweeping the streets near the city’s main square ahead of Leo’s arrival. “We want our city to be cleaner than ever.”

Ever since Leo touched down on Peruvian soil on Wednesday, the world has seen a very different pope.

Normally reserved and placid, the 71-year-old Leo has seemed at turns positively giddy and overwhelmed with emotion to the point of tears.

That was certainly the case on Thursday night when some 60,000 young Peruvians sang for him in the Lima stadium. It was also the case when he sang the national anthem at the presidential palace upon his arrival on Wednesday.

Leo has also sung along with popular songs and hymns, tapping his fingers to the beat on an armchair.

On other occasions, he has shown himself so relaxed and comfortable as to joke about his health. Speaking to Peruvian bishops, he joked about how some “doubting Thomases” didn’t think he’d make it because of his recent lung cancer surgery.

After the Mass, Leo's other main events of the day include a meeting with Chiclayo clergy and seminarians and a speech to the Catholic university where he served as chancellor during his years as bishop. The university is named for the 16th-century first archbishop of Lima, St. Turibius de Mogrovejo.

Leo is particularly devoted to Mogrovejo and in many ways modeled his ministry on his.

Mogrovejo is revered for having traveled long distances on horseback to be with his flock and for having defended the rights of Indigenous and enslaved peoples. He studied Quechua and Aymara and oversaw the printing of church teaching in these Indigenous languages, because he believed the faith had to be transmitted in a language people could understand.

The Rev. John Lydon, an Augustinian who lived with Leo in Peru for over 10 years, says his commitment to Peruvians, human rights and involving the lay faithful in the running of church initiatives was born during his stints first as a young missionary priest in Chulucanas, then Trujillo and finally as bishop in Chiclayo.

Lydon recalled that when Leo first arrived in Peru in the mid-1980s, during the period of the Shining Path terror campaign and the authoritarian Fujimori regime’s crackdown, then-Rev. Prevost led a campaign to collect signatures to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“These are the kind of things that just mark his identity,” Lydon recalled.

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Winfield reported from Lima, Peru

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

A cutout of Pope Leo XIV is displayed outside a restaurant in Chiclayo, Peru, where the pontiff served as bishop, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

People take a selfie with a sign of Pope Leo XIV in Chiclayo, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Faithful cheer during a prayer vigil led by Pope Leo XIV at the National Stadium in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV leaves at the end of a prayer vigil at the National Stadium in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV catches a stuffed lion as he arrives to lead a prayer vigil at the National Stadium in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)