According to a report by The Hill, with just a few months go until the 2022 midterms, The GOP is increasingly optimistic about the prospect of a red wave flipping both the House of Representatives and the Senate, ending Democrats’ control of both houses.
Democrats are finding themselves defending the narrow edge they hold in both chambers, and defending President Joe Biden as well against high COVID numbers, inflation, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and more.
The Democratic President’s approval ratings have recently sunk to the lower 40s, which doesn’t bode well, historically, for the midterm prospects of Democrats.
Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, has this take:
“I’ve been telling Democrats, especially Democrats in targeted seats, enjoy the holidays, and you got a decision to make: retire or lose next fall.”
Emmer concluded that in this environment, “no Democrat is safe,” estimating as many as 70 Democrats in congress could lose their seats.
Emmer’s fellow Republican House member Don Bacon of Nebraska agreed:
“I’m very confident that we’re gonna take back the House. I think that on the key issues right now, all the energy is on our side. And when I look at all the polling data, it matches what I see in the district, voters are concerned about inflation, crime, the border, Afghanistan, and all those issues are in our favor.”
Some Democrats are also seeing the writing on the wall, as pollster Molly Murphy explains:
“The environment is particularly dour, both because of rising prices, economic anxiety, frustration about feeling stagnant when it comes to COVID, that it is not behind us despite the fact that we’ve been living with it for two years. If this environment holds, it’s going to be pretty damning.”
