Republicans spent the summer trying to wave away their midterm fears. Their comforting theory was that polls would tighten after Labor Day, when voters supposedly began paying closer attention, sparing the party from a full political disaster.

With fewer than six weeks remaining before Election Day, that confidence has evaporated. Democrats’ generic ballot lead has surged during the past two weeks while President Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen to negative 22%.

That is the lowest approval rating recorded for any president at this point in a tenure since political polling began. Republicans are responding by racing into the bargaining stage of grief before voters have counted a single ballot.

Multiple GOP lawmakers who spent months voting to let Trump continue his war in Iran are now calling for the conflict to end. The war has cost taxpayers more than $43 billion, driven up gas prices, and threatens the global economy.

Other Republicans want Congress to return to Washington and confront the damage their party helped create. Their proposals include suspending the gas tax and banning diesel exports, although oil and gas experts say those moves would inflict exponentially more harm than good.

Iowa Republican candidate Ashley Hinson urged immediate action from the House. She laid out an expansive list of proposed responses while promising to cooperate with anyone willing to provide relief.

“The House should return to DC immediately to work to pause diesel exports, suspend the gas tax, fully unleash E15 and biodiesel, and work on a diesel relief program for truckers and farmers,” Hinson wrote on X. “Americans need relief and I’ll work with anyone to deliver.”

Republicans are unlikely to return to Washington. Even if they do, they would face a vote on articles of impeachment against War Secretary Pete Hegseth, something GOP leaders are desperately trying to avoid.

The bargaining is not limited to elected Republicans. Conservative radio host Steve Deace shared a bleak report from Iowa, writing that state House Republicans had received a brutal assessment from their own pollsters.

“Yesterday, Iowa House Republicans were informed by their own pollsters that if you are in a +15 district you’re within the margin for error, if you’re in a +10 district you’re underwater, and that this might end being an even worse midterm environment than 2006,” Deace wrote on X.

Deace said he initially hesitated to make the information public because he did not want Republicans to lose hope. He ultimately decided to share it because six weeks remained for the party to act.

He then pleaded with Trump and Republican strategists to explain the reasons and goals behind the Iran war more effectively. He also called for Trump to campaign aggressively and demanded sharper messaging from the party.

“We need the president out on the stump asap. We need better and way more aggressive messaging.” Deace wrote.

Deace also complained about Republican advertisements focused on attendance for votes and urged the party to attack Democrats instead. He said people outside Washington viewed the Iran and Hormuz mission as another Middle East war quagmire that ordinary people were paying for from both directions.

Apparently, the solution is more campaigning from a president with a 34% approval rating. That is quite a strategy for a party already watching competitive districts drift underwater.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida tried another approach when Robbie Smither, a Florida Republican, said he would vote Democratic for the first time because of the GOP’s loyalty to Trump. Gaetz told him, “Bro we need your vote,” before invoking the party’s familiar attacks against transgender people.

Smither was unmoved and rejected Gaetz’s claim that Democrats wanted to “trans” his children. “With all due respect, stop pissing on people and telling them it’s raining,” he replied.

Smither said his actual concerns were feeding his two sons and covering the mortgage and homeowners insurance on the family’s house. “What we worry about is feeding him and his brother. Paying the mortgage and homeowners insurance on the house we’re raising them in.”

That exchange captures the Republican problem. The party’s anti trans culture war messaging is failing to connect with voters who are more concerned about living costs and keeping their families financially secure.

Anything can still happen during the final six weeks of the campaign. But the frantic bargaining, grim internal polling, and increasingly desperate pleas offer a revealing picture of how Republicans view the political terrain.