Former Rep. Bob Good says the Republican Party has stopped acting like a conservative party by any measure, even as he maintains Democrats would be worse.
Good, who chaired the House Freedom Caucus and lost his 2024 Virginia primary to a Trump-backed challenger, told Fox News Digital that Republicans have been “Democrat-lite in their policies” for “nearly two years.”
Republicans have controlled both chambers of Congress through the first stretch of Trump’s second term. Good said that over the last “year and a half, 19 months or so,” the party has “massively squandered the opportunity that was given to them by the voters.”
He cited the national debt climbing to $40 trillion, new entitlement programs such as Trump accounts, and the federal government taking ownership stakes in private companies. “We haven’t made the case for why we’re in a war that’s lasted over six months now,” Good said.
“The real emergency, the real crisis, is the debt crisis,” Good asserted.
Good argued Trump avoids discussing the debt seriously because spending cuts poll poorly. “I think he suspects that spending cuts and spending reforms aren’t particularly popular,” Good said. “And I think wants to be popular.”
Party responds
RNC spokeswoman Emma Hall dismissed Good’s comments in a statement to Fox News Digital: “President Trump and Republicans are delivering America First results every day — and it’s why we’ll defy history and win in November. No one is interested in advice from certified loser Bob Good.”
White House spokesman Kush Desai said Trump “was given a resounding mandate by the American people to smash Washington, D.C.’s obsession with consensus orthodoxy that has let Americans down,” pointing to deregulation and tax cuts as evidence the administration is reversing what he called Biden-era “America Last” policies.
Good’s warning on the midterms
Good said turnout will be the GOP’s “primary challenge” in the midterms, warning the party is running on the argument that it’s simply not as bad as Democrats.
“Keep the House cuz we’re not as bad as Democrats is not a truly inspirational motivating factor,” Good said.
He argued Republicans should have used 2025 to act aggressively while they held power outside an election year. “What they should have done in year one, in 2025, was to massively cut spending, massively shrink government, massively implement spending reforms, go for broke while they had the power before it was an election year, and then the American people I think would’ve rewarded them … with midterm victory,” he said.
Still, Good said he holds out hope Republicans can perform well this cycle because of redistricting and because “Democrat policies are so unpopular, and Democrat candidates are so extreme.”
Trump gets credit too
Despite his criticism, Good said “the Democrats are certainly worse,” crediting Trump for securing the border, cutting regulations and taxes, and targeting diversity, equity and inclusion policy in the federal government and education.
“President Trump has done a lot of great things. President Trump immediately secured the border, to such degree, it’s not even talked about anymore,” he said. “Democrats would do none of those things,” he added, arguing that wherever Republicans have been “weak or tepid or not followed through, Democrats would be even worse.”
