# Opinion: Mehek Cooke Says Republicans Should Run on Trump's Record, Not Away From It, in the Final Week

Cooke argues Democrats' whole strategy is to attack Trump, and that border, crime and fraud results give Republicans a stronger case. She concedes voters still feel high prices. These are her views.

- Section: [Opinion](https://rightnewsrightnow.com/opinion/)
- Published: 2026-10-28
- By: RightNewsRightNow Staff
- Canonical page: https://rightnewsrightnow.com/articles/opinion-mehek-cooke-trump-record-gop-best-weapon-midterms-fox-news/

A Republican strategist makes the case for a Trump-centered closing message, in a Fox News opinion column.

Her premise. Mehek Cooke writes that Democrats have staked the midterms on repeating the president's name and blaming him for everything. She says they have spent more than $163 million on TV ads mentioning him since Sept. 1. A new Fox News poll, she notes, found 72% of voters say one reason for their vote is to express support or opposition to him. Her conclusion: "Republican candidates should lean in."

The numbers she cites. Voters trust the GOP over Democrats by 10 points on crime, eight on border security and three on immigration, she writes. She says Border Patrol recorded fewer than 99,000 southwest border apprehensions in fiscal 2026, a 95% drop from the annual average of more than 1.8 million under President Biden, with zero Border Patrol releases for the year. On fraud, she says the government loses an estimated $233 billion to $521 billion a year, and that the administration canceled about 315,000 unauthorized Obamacare enrollments covering more than 760,000 people, saving roughly $2.2 billion.

The affordability point. Cooke admits Democrats lead the generic ballot and that 60% of voters name the cost of living as their top economic concern. Her answer is that affordability also includes what failed border enforcement and Washington's spending cost families, citing the Congressional Budget Office on state and local costs and the Federal Reserve on rents.

Her closing. She wants Republicans to remind voters that a Democratic House would mean "impeachment hearings, targeted investigations and two more years of partisan warfare."

Note for readers: this is opinion. Cooke is a Republican strategist, and the figures are her citations of Fox's poll and administration data, which we have not checked. The ad-spending figure is hers.

## Source

Original reporting: [Fox News (opinion by Mehek Cooke)](https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/mehek-cooke-trumps-record-gops-best-weapon-midterms)