President Donald Trump said the "few" candidates who lost after receiving his endorsement were backed out of loyalty, while promoting graphics that credited him with a 97 percent success rate in Republican primaries. "My Endorsements are stronger than ever," Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social. Trump said "good people are getting elected that never had the chance" and claimed there had "never been anything close" to his endorsement record.
"The few that lost were done out of loyalty," Trump added. "It was almost impossible for them to win but, I felt obligated to go with them because they were, in my opinion, good people!" The three graphics accompanying the post said Trump-backed candidates had won 760 of 783 Republican primaries involving the U.S. House and governorships across the 2018, 2020, 2022, 2024 and 2026 election cycles.
One graphic said 254 of 262 Trump-endorsed candidates had won Republican primaries in 2026, producing a 97 percent success rate. The figure was broken down as 23 wins from 23 Senate endorsements, 215 from 219 House endorsements and 16 from 20 gubernatorial endorsements. A second graphic said Trump-backed candidates had won 760 of 783 Republican primary contests across five election cycles: 35 of 36 in 2018, 117 of 120 in 2020, 179 of 187 in 2022, 175 of 178 in 2024 and 254 of 262 so far in 2026.
The post provided an office-by-office breakdown. It said Trump’s Senate candidates won 96 of 97 primaries, or 99 percent; House candidates won 615 of 629, or 98 percent; and gubernatorial candidates won 49 of 57, or 86 percent. Newsweek contacted the White House for comment via email on Monday morning.
The graphics themselves do not identify a source, and they appear to exclude endorsements for other positions such as lieutenant governor, attorney general, and state legislatures. Ballotpedia’s Trump endorsement tracker offers an independent comparison, although its scope differs from Trump’s graphics. Ballotpedia counted 313 primary endorsements in 2026 and calculated a 96 percent success rate.
Its database includes state legislative and other statewide races, helping explain why its total is larger than the post’s 262. Trump’s successful federal picks include Barry Moore for Alabama’s open Senate seat, Mike Collins for Senate in Georgia and Andy Barr for Senate in Kentucky, according to Ballotpedia. His winning gubernatorial endorsements include Tommy Tuberville in Alabama, Byron Donalds in Florida and Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio.
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