Looking Ahead: What 2025’s Wins Mean for 2026

Jan 5, 2026 by AFP

ARLINGTON, VA— As we step into 2026, Kent Strang, Managing Director of Americans for Prosperity, explains in a recent op-ed published by The DC Journal why the legislative accomplishments of 2025 matter. From ending Bidenomics and passing historic reforms to securing the border and expanding education freedom, these wins marked a major shift toward affordability, opportunity, and putting power back in the hands of the American people—and offer key lessons for the year ahead.

As the year comes to an end, most Americans won’t remember the specifics of this year’s biggest policy fights. They will feel how those policy fights affected them and their bottom line — what their local lawmakers, Congress and the administration did to make life more affordable and to unleash opportunity.

Americans came into this year seeking change. After soundly rejecting top-down government control in the 2024 election, they sent a bold message to Washington that it was time for change.

I’ve heard this firsthand.

This year, I’ve traveled around the country, met with Americans, and asked them what matters most to them. Their answers are usually simple — affordable groceries and necessities, healthcare options that don’t break the bank, and freedom to build the kind of lives they want for their families.

This has been a giant step forward on all those fronts.

The Trump administration and leaders in Congress put an end to Bidenomics, the top-down government-controlled economic philosophy that caused 40-year high inflation, leaving Americans paying $11,000 more just to maintain their lifestyles.

What’s more, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, preventing the largest tax increase in American history, which would have hit families in 2026. This landmark law also cut more than $1.6 trillion in wasteful spending, ended needless energy subsidies, expanded access to healthcare options, and delivered long-term certainty for families and businesses.

The law also provided funding for border security. President Trump and the Republican-led Congress heard the voices of Americans shouting for greater border security, and they delivered. Congress strengthened security through funding and personnel, resulting in the lowest border crossing numbers we’ve seen in 50 years.

This sets Washington up to work on more comprehensive immigration reforms that allow those who want to contribute to enter the country while keeping out others.

Across the country, state reforms restored accountability, limited government overreach, and returned decision-making rights to the states.

In Texas, citizens worked to deliver a historic expansion of education freedom by passing the largest universal education savings account program in the country. This allows parents and students more control over their education, all because Texans knew that students deserve better than a one-size-fits-all education system, and that parents should decide how to meet their child’s needs, not Washington.

States including North Carolina, Kentucky, Louisiana, Utah, Oklahoma and Wyoming passed the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, a tool that creates safeguards against excessive regulation by requiring legislative approval for regulations that would significantly affect the state’s economy.

Americans in these states have greater protection from overly burdensome regulations that hurt their states’ economies. federal lawmakers now have a blueprint for REINS reforms on the national level.

The year 2025 has been about putting freedom and control (and tax dollars) back in the hands of the people.

However, it wasn’t all good news.

The historically long government shutdown brought government and needed policy work to a screeching halt. Too many congressional Democrats proved they were willing to hold the government and taxpayers hostage to score political points with their base.

Shutdown fights are precisely the dysfunction Americans hate to see from Congress. Going into next year, we’ll work with members to clean up the messes made during the shutdown and in the Bidenomics era with the best solution we have — freedom and opportunity.

…

To read the entire article click here.

Through broad-based grassroots outreach, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is driving long-term solutions to the country’s biggest problems. AFP activists engage friends and neighbors on key issues and encourage them to take an active role in building a culture of mutual benefit, where people succeed by helping one another. AFP recruits and unites activists in all 50 states behind a common goal of advancing policies that will help people improve their lives. For more information, visit www.AmericansForProsperity.org

###