Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Republicans can win in November, but warned they must not get comfortable playing defense.
His comments came in a column for Fox News.
"All of them must be prepared to go on offense," he said. "This does not mean simply attacking Democrats. It means setting goals in Congress and aggressively fighting to achieve them.
"The GOP and President (Donald) Trump were able to pass the tax cuts and reforms because they were on offense. They had a plan and they worked doggedly to execute it. However, we have now seen that while the tax cuts have been very popular, they are not enough to stave off serious competition."
He said Republicans in Congress must put together popular legislation actions "and start fighting for them — every single day."
"These need to be simple, principled, legislative goals that are easy for the American people to both understand and support," Gingrich maintained. "Just as importantly, these legislative goals need to be painful for Democrats to oppose."
Gingrich cited the Modern Employment Reform, Improvements, and Transformation (MERIT) Act, which was introduced by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga.
"This bill builds on the success the Trump administration has had in firing bad employees from the Department of Veterans Affairs, after years of misconduct and incompetence led to hundreds of thousands of veterans' health care needs being ignored," he said.
"The legislation applies this success to all federal agencies.
"Implementing this program should be commonsense to most Americans. Most people know that if they act inappropriately at work or ignore their duties, they are going to get fired."
And he noted Democrats would find it difficult to oppose the program.
"Another good legislative goal for Republicans would be passing the Employee Rights Act," he said.
"This is a no-brainer for GOP candidates running in union-controlled states because — among other things — it guarantees most employees' rights to have secret paper ballot elections, prevents unions from pressuring employers against such elections, and requires routine secret ballot referendums to let employees decide if they want to remain unionized."
He said both the MERIT Act and the Employee Rights Act "fit perfectly with President Trump's agenda to make America great again."
"If Republicans have built and maintained an effective, commonsense offense of popular legislative agenda, they will win in November," he said. "If not, they will lose. It is that simple."