Do Republicans Have an Identity Crisis? One Senator Thinks So

Democrats aren’t the only ones struggling with their identity and future direction in 2025. 

In an op-ed published Monday in The New York Times, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., described simmering tensions between a pro-working class contingent of Republicans led by President Donald Trump and the GOP’s traditionalist “Wall Street wing” – those in the party urging cuts to social programs like Medicaid and pushing for “corporate giveaways.”

The op-ed comes as ultraconservative Republicans in Congress push for deep cuts to Medicaid as part of a sweeping bill to enact large swaths of Trump’s agenda. Hawley is among a group of Republicans who have vocally opposed such cuts, arguing that doing so would effectively undermine the will of the voters who helped hand the GOP control of the White House and Congress last year.

“Republicans need to open their eyes: Our voters support social insurance programs,” Hawley wrote. “More than that, our voters depend on those programs. And there’s a reason for this that Republicans would do well to ponder. Our economy is increasingly unfriendly to working people and their families.”

Hawley’s argument strikes at a key concern for many Republican political operatives ahead of 2026. Steep cuts to Medicaid and other social insurance programs could give Democrats a wedge issue to latch onto, putting vulnerable congressional Republicans on defense heading into the midterm elections. 

It’s already happened before. Democrats campaigned heavily in 2018 against GOP-led efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama’s landmark legislative achievement. While the repeal effort ultimately failed, it proved to be an effective enough talking point for Democrats to help them win the House majority that year.

Polling suggests that Medicaid cuts could carry similar risks for the GOP. A survey released earlier this month by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that most Republicans – 55 percent – oppose cuts to Medicaid. Seventy-three percent oppose cuts to Social Security and 64 percent are against cutting Medicare spending. 

In his op-ed, Hawley nodded to the broad support among Republicans for programs like Medicaid, writing that “our voters not only want us to protect the social insurance they need to get by; they also want us to fight for a better life.”

“That’s the promise of American life,” Hawley wrote. “If Republicans want to be a working-class party – if we want to be a majority party – we must ignore calls to cut Medicaid and start delivering on America’s promise for America’s working people.”