The returning head of the House Republican campaign committee says President-elect Trump's convincing 2024 White House victory gives the GOP plenty of home field advantage as the party aims to defend its razor-thin majority in the 2026 midterm elections.

"The battlefield is really laying out to our advantage. There are 14 Democrats who won seats also carried by Donald Trump. There are only three Republicans in seats that were carried by Kamala Harris. So that tells me we're going to be on offense," National Republican Congressional Committee chair Rep. Richard Hudson emphasized in a recent Fox News Digital interview.

Trump carried all seven crucial battleground states and, for the first time in three presidential elections, won the national popular vote as he defeated Vice President Harris last month.

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The Republicans also flipped control of the Senate from the Democrats, and even though they had a net loss of two seats in the 435-member House, they'll hold a fragile 220-215 majority when the new Congress convenes next month.

Eight years ago, when Trump first won the White House and the GOP held onto their House majority, Democrats targeted roughly two-dozen Republicans in the 2018 midterms in districts Trump lost in the 2016 election.

The Democrats, in a blue-wave election, were successful in flipping the House majority. 

Fast-forward eight years, and it's a different story, as this time Republicans will be defending seats on friendly turf in districts that the president-elect carried.

"There's a whole lot more opportunity for us to go on offense," Hudson, who's represented a congressional district in central North Carolina for a dozen years, touted.

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Hudson also made the case that House Republicans who will once again be targeted by the Democrats in the upcoming election cycle are "really battle tested. I mean, they're folks who've been through the fire before. They've gone through several cycles now with millions of dollars spent against them."

"They've been able to succeed because they work very hard in their districts. They've established very strong brands, as you know, people who know how to get things done and how to deliver for their community," he emphasized. "The Republicans who are in tough seats are our best candidates."

The three House Republicans who are in districts that Harris carried last month are Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, and Mike Lawler of New York.

But there will be a big difference in 2026: Trump, who helped drive low propensity voters to the polls this year, won't be on the ballot in the 2026 midterms. 

"I certainly would rather have him on the ballot because he turns out voters that don't come out for other candidates," Hudson acknowledged.

But he argued, "If you look at the way this race is shaping up, we campaigned on a key set of issues of things that we promised we would deliver. If we deliver those things and have Donald Trump there with us campaigning with our candidates, I believe we can drive out a higher percentage of those voters than we have in midterms in the past."

Hudson said Trump "was a great partner" with House Republicans this year and will be again in the upcoming election cycle.

"[Trump] cares deeply about having a House majority because he understands that a Democrat House majority means his agenda comes to a grinding halt. And so he's been very engaged, was a very good partner for us this last election, and I anticipate that continuing."

Hudson, who is returning for a second straight cycle chairing the NRCC, said that at the top of his committee to-do list are candidate recruitment and fundraising.

"I mean, first thing, we've got to go out and recruit candidates. You know, candidate quality matters. And then we've got to go raise the money. And so I'll be on the road and be out there helping our incumbents. But I'm looking forward to it," he emphasized.

Fox News' Emma Woodhead contributed to this report

Editors note: Fox News Digital also interviewed Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington. That report will be posted on Friday.

A top contender in the race to become the next Democratic National Committee chair acknowledged after last month's elections that "we're getting our butts kicked right now."

Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin, a DNC vice chair who has led the association of state Democratic Party chairs, says the marching order for his party is "win the U.S. House back, win the Senate back and, of course, win the presidency in ’28."

But Martin, considered a DNC frontrunner, emphasized that equally important is "making sure that we are growing our party and contesting in every public policy arena throughout this nation, from school boards to the mayorships, to country boards, to city councils to state legislative races."

Democrats suffered major setbacks up and down the ballot in the 2024 elections  as former President Trump recaptured the White House and the GOP flipped the Senate and held onto its fragile majority in the House. 

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The aggressive strategy of President-elect Trump's campaign and Republicans up and down the ballot of appearances on podcasts and other non-traditional media is credited, in part, for the gains they made in winning the support of working class, minority, younger and low-propensity voters.

Current DNC chair Jaime Harrison is not seeking another four-year term steering the national party committee. The next chair will be chosen by the roughly 450 voting members of the national party committee when they meet Feb. 1 at National Harbor in Maryland for the DNC's winter meeting.

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Another top contender is Ben Wikler, who has steered the state Democratic Party in battleground Wisconsin since 2019 and, like Martin, is well known by the voting members.

Also considered competitive is Martin O'Malley, the former two-term Maryland governor and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate who served as commissioner of the Social Security Administration the past year, 

Also running are James Skoufis, a New York state senator who launched his long shot bid last month, and former Department of Homeland Security official Nate Snyder, who announced his uphill climb for chair last week.

Fox News Digital interviewed Martin, Wikler and O'Malley ahead of last week's meeting of the DNC's executive committee, which was the first time the panel had gathered since November's election.

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Martin said if he becomes chair, the first thing he would do is "figure out a plan to win. And we need to start writing that plan, making sure we’re looking underneath the hood. How much money do we have at the party? What are the contracts? What contracts do we need to get rid of? And, frankly, bringing all of our stakeholder groups together, that’s the biggest thing.

"We don’t have a lot of time," Martin emphasized. "There’s elections bearing down on us in New Jersey and Virginia in just 10 months, so we’ve got a lot of work to do."

Martin has repeatedly pledged he'll "contest every race in every zip code."

"It absolutely is realistic," he told Fox News Digital. "I’m not going to take a scarcity mindset when we just spent close to $2 billion on a presidential election. … There’s enough resources around for the DNC to actually start contesting races up and down the ballot."

Even though he says he's won commitments of support from nearly half the voting members he needs to become the chair, Martin said, "I’m not taking anything for granted. I certainly am proud of the support I’ve seen so far. But I’ve got a long ways to go."

But, he added, "I’m clearly ahead right now. I like where we’re at."

Wikler, in his interview, highlighted that "the goal for the Democratic Party should not be to win 47 seats or 51 seats in the Senate. We should be aiming bigger because we know the values of the Democratic Party around a country that works for working people and around freedom and dignity and respect for everyone. Those are deeply shared values across the country.

"I think a lot of change is needed in order to grow stronger, get our message to everyone and enlist support from everyone who thinks that this country should work for folks who have to work to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table."

Wikler said the party needs to show voters "that we're fighting for them against those who would try to rig the economy for those at the very top and deliver that message in places where people aren't paying attention to politics much, but they know what they're struggling with in their own lives.

"That means communicating in clear language in a way that shows people that we see them. And with our actions showing that we're fighting for them to bring costs down and make sure that working people have a fair shot in this country," he added.

Wikler pointed to the success of Democrats in his home state, a crucial battleground, as a reason he'll be competitive in the chair race.

He said the party is "united in its desire to win elections. And, in Wisconsin, we have some of the most closely fought, intense elections. We've had to learn to deal with everything that Republican candidates and campaigns throw our way. And I think the energy around it, figuring out how to get stronger and bigger and reach more people in more places, will give me a path to winning the DNC chair's race and then working to unite this party to fight and win up and down the ballot."

O'Malley, who turns 62 next month, is the oldest of the candidates running for chair.

He said he's running for DNC chair "because I love my country, and the only way we're going to save the Republic is if the Democratic Party gets itself battle ready as quickly as possible."

"I have had the honor to prove my chops as an operational turnaround leader at every level of government, including recently at Social Security for the president," he touted. 

Pointing to his past steering the Democratic Governors Association, he noted, "I'm the only candidate that's actually chaired a national committee — the Democratic governors — and I'm the only candidate that's actually run for office and been elected to office, city council, mayor, governor. And we need to recruit people all across the ballot in order to bring our party back."

O'Malley said that job No. 1 if he's elected chair "is to bring us together and to understand what we did well and what we did poorly the last time. But, most importantly, we've got to focus on registering more people as Democrats. We've got to return to the economic message that has always been the core of this party, that we've veered away from in many people's eyes in this last election. And we need to defend voting rights everywhere, not just in swing states."

Asked if he's got a shot against Martin and Wikler, who sit on the committee and are much better known by the voting members, O'Malley said, "I believe I do. I've found a whole lot of people that realize this is no longer a kind of caretaker election for DNC chair, but it's a change maker. And, for that reason, I'm finding doors blowing open all across the country."

EXCLUSIVE: President-elect Trump won't be on the ballot in the 2026 midterms, but Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley says that Trump will play a "significant" role in supporting GOP candidates.

Republicans enjoyed major victories in last month's elections, with Trump defeating Vice President Kamala Harris to win the White House, the GOP flipping control of the Senate from the Democrats, and holding on to their razor-thin majority in the House.

Whatley argued that "as we go forward into this next election cycle, the fundamentals are going to remain the same" during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.

"We need to make sure that we are building our state parties, that we're building our ground game, we're building our election integrity apparatus to be in place to make sure that when we get those candidates through those primaries in ‘26, that we're going to be in a position to take them all the way to the finish line," he emphasized.

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But the party in power traditionally suffers setbacks in the following midterm elections. And Trump, who was a magnate for voter turnout, won't be on the ballot in 2026.

Whatley said that even though he won't be a candidate, "President Trump is going to be a very significant part of this because at the end of the day, what we need to do is hold on to the House, hold on to the Senate so that we can finish his term and his agenda."

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And Whatley predicted that "Donald Trump will be very active on the campaign trail for Republicans. And his agenda is the agenda that we're going to be running on."

The Harris campaign and the Democratic National Committee outraised the Trump campaign and the RNC this past cycle, but Whatley is confident that with the party soon to control the White House, Republicans will be even more competitive in the campaign cash race in the midterms.

"We're pretty excited about where we are in terms of the fundraising that we did throughout the course of this cycle and what we're going to do going forward," he said.

Whatley said that his message to donors will be "we were successful in putting Donald Trump into the White House, and we need to carry forward with his agenda by keeping these House majorities and Senate majorities."

He also pushed back on the persistent questioning of the RNC and Trump campaign's ground game efforts during the general election.

"We focused very hard on low propensity voters. This was an entirely new system that we put in place over the course of this election cycle. It worked very, very well," he touted. 

And looking ahead, he said "in a midterm election cycle, low propensity voters are going to, again, be very, very important for us. So, we're going to continue to focus on building that type of a program."

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Whatley spotlighted that 'we also focused on outreach to communities that the Republican Party has traditionally not reached out to - Black voters, Hispanic voters, Asian American voters. That's why we were able to see such seismic shifts towards Donald Trump versus where those blocks had been in 2016 and 2020. We also saw seismic shifts among young voters and women voters because we were talking to every single American voter. Our ground game was very significant."

Whatley was interviewed a week after Trump asked him to continue as RNC chair moving forward.

In March, as he clinched the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, Trump named Whatley to succeed Ronna McDaniel as RNC chair. Whatley, a longtime ally of the former president and a major supporter of Trump's election integrity efforts, had served as RNC general counsel and chair of the North Carolina Republican Party. 

Trump is term-limited and won't be able to seek election again in 2028. Vice President-elect Sen. JD Vance will likely be considered the front-runner for the 2028 GOP nomination.

But asked if the RNC will hold to its traditional role of staying neutral in an open and contested presidential primary, Whatley said "we will."

And he added that "I'm very excited about the bench that we have in the Republican Party right now. You think about all the Republican governors, you think about all the Republican senators, the members of the House that we have, the leaders across the country that have been engaged in this campaign are going to be part of the president's cabinet."

Whatley argued that the president-elect's "America First movement is bigger than Donald Trump. He is the tip of the spear. He is the vanguard of this movement. But. It is a very big movement right now."

The chairman also emphasized that "Donald Trump has completely remade the Republican Party. We're now the working-class party. We're now a party that is communicating and working with every single voter, speaking to every single voter about the issues that they care about. So, as we go into 2028, we are in a great position to be able to continue the momentum of this agenda and this movement."

Unlike the DNC, which in the 2024 cycle upended the traditional presidential nominating calendar, the RNC made no major changes to their primary lineup, and kept the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary as their first two contests.

Asked about the 2028 calendar, Whatley said "I've not had any conversations with anybody who wants to change the calendar on our side. I know the Democrats did during the course of this election cycle, not sure that it really helped them all that much."

"We're very comfortable with the calendar as it is. But as we move towards 2028, we'll have those conversations," he added.

President-elect Trump on Wednesday invited Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley to continue steering the GOP's national party committee.

And Whatley quickly accepted, saying he is "honored for the opportunity to continue as Chairman of the RNC and work nonstop to help President Trump Make America Great Again!"

The former and future Republican president, pointing to his convincing White House victory in last month's elections, as well the GOP's flipping of the Senate and holding onto its fragile House majority, said Whatley had done "an OUTSTANDING and HISTORIC JOB in running" the RNC.

And Trump announced that "I have asked Michael to return as Chairman of the RNC to continue to build our Party, and be a trusted partner as we Make America Great Again, and ensure Free and Fair Election."

 HEAD HERE FOR FULL FOX NEWS RESULTS FROM THE 2024 ELECTIONS

In March, as he clinched the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, Trump named Whatley to succeed Ronna McDaniel as RNC chair. Whatley, a longtime ally of the former president and a major supporter of the former president's election integrity efforts, had served as RNC general counsel and chair of the North Carolina Republican Party. Trump also named his daughter-in-law Lara Trump as RNC co-chair.

After first winning the White House in 2016, Trump picked McDaniel to steer the national party committee, and she became the longest serving chair in modern times. But earlier this year, Trump essentially pushed McDaniel out the door by repeatedly urging changes at the committee – after lackluster party fundraising and his opposition to the RNC's presidential primary debates.

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Trump, in his social media post, said Whatley "is a smart, tough lawyer who put together a completely unprecedented ELECTION INTEGRITY OPERATION that protected the Vote all across America, and a GET OUT THE VOTE CAMPAIGN that delivered the Votes we needed in every Battleground State."

And he argued that "Michael and Lara transformed the RNC into a lean, focused, and powerful machine that will empower the America First Agenda for many years to come."

Trump, whose immense grip over the GOP is stronger than ever, urged that "Republicans everywhere should support him [Whatley] as he continues his mission at the RNC."

Whatley, responding minutes later in a social media post, thanked Trump "for the trust he has placed in me to continue our important work at the @GOP."

"As long as I am Chairman, the RNC’s priorities will remain the same: get out the vote, protect the ballot, and raise the money we need to elect Republicans up and down the ticket," he pledged.

Whatley pointed to the "crucial fights ahead," which he said included "supporting President Trump’s cabinet nominees and preparing for the 2026 midterms, to our ongoing fight for election integrity across America."

But Trump, in last month's elections, outperformed many down-ballot Republicans in key Senate and House races. And the RNC, going forward, will need to work to ensure that Trump voters continue to support the party's candidates even though the term-limited Trump won't appear on the ballot ever again.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the new chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, says President-elect Trump is on-board to help the senator in his mission to protect and expand the newly won GOP majority in the Senate.

Scott, who last week was elected by his Republican colleagues as chair of the Senate GOP campaign committee, met with the former and future president at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

"Just had a great meeting with President @realDonaldTrump! He's all in to help the @NRSC keep a Republican majority for his entire four years AND create a generation of opportunity!" Scott wrote in a social media post on Thursday night.

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After losing the Senate majority in the 2020 elections, the GOP flipped four Democrat-held seats earlier this month, and will control the chamber 53-47 when the next Congress convenes at the beginning of the new year.

In his first interview following his election as NRSC chair, Scott told Fox News Digital last week that "what we’re going to do is defend the seats that we have and expand the map so that we can increase the majority brought to us by the Trump victory."

In this month's elections, unlike in 2016 and 2020, Trump outperformed many of the GOP's Senate candidates.

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Scott told Fox News Digital that he wants Trump to participate as much as he can in the 2026 Senate contests.

"Every day and every way, President Trump, I know you have a full-time job. I’m going to ask you to have two full-time jobs. Let’s expand this map," Scott emphasized.

He said "that means that every single day we need President Trump on the campaign trail, doing fundraisers, talking to folks, because this is President Donald J. Trump’s party, and we need to make sure we expand it, from the man to the movement. We need him to do it."

Scott last year unsuccessfully ran for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, before ending his bid and endorsing Trump. The senator was a high-profile surrogate for Trump on the campaign trail this year.

While not as favorable as the 2024 Senate map, the 2026 electoral landscape does give the Republicans some opportunities to flip seats.

Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff of Georgia and Gary Peters of Michigan are up for re-election in two years in key battleground states Trump flipped last week.

And Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire will be up for re-election in a perennial swing state that Trump lost but over-performed from his 2020 showing. In Virginia, where Trump lost by just five points last week, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner will be up for re-election.

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"How do you expand the map?" Scott asked. "You look at Georgia and Michigan and New Hampshire and Virginia. And if you’re stretching - take a look at New Mexico and Minnesota. President Trump was very competitive in those states."

But Republicans will also have to play defense. GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is up for re-election in a reliably blue state. And Sen. Thom Tills of North Carolina is also up in 2026, in a battleground state that Trump narrowly won.

Scott emphasized that "the good news is as long as Susan Collins is running, I think we have a shot to win. Last time, she won by several points. This time, she’ll win by several points. Thom Tillis staying in North Carolina is good for our party."

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In the 2022 election cycle, when the Republicans blew a chance to win back the majority, NRSC chair Sen. Rick Scott of Florida was criticized for a hands-off approach in the GOP Senate primaries. 

This past cycle, now-former NRSC chair Sen. Steve Daines of Montana got involved in Senate Republican nomination battles.

Asked whether the NRSC will take sides in competitive Republican Senate primaries during his tenure the next two years, Scott told Fox News, "I think the best thing for us to do is have a family conversation next year about what we’re looking at. How we’re going to defend that map and then make the best decisions we can as it relates to making sure that we end up with more seats than we currently have."

"Thank God we’re at 53. I’d like to see 55," Scott added. 

Asked whether holding 55 seats was his goal, Scott joked, "if it were up to me, we’d have 100 seats."

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who easily won re-election earlier this month in blue-state New York, is expected to take over as chair of the rival Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Senate Democrats will hold their leadership elections later this year.

David Bergstein, the DSCC communications director for the past couple of election cycles, told Fox News that "in a challenging political environment, Democrats made history. We won multiple races in states won by Trump. We dramatically over-performed the presidential results. And for the first time in over a decade, Senate Democrats have won multiple races in states won by the opposite party's presidential nominee."

"The outcome of this cycle puts Senate Democrats in the strongest possible position to reclaim the majority in 2026," Bergstein touted.