A top Democratic strategist did not sound in a hopeful tone for her party during a panel discussion on CNN Sunday morning.
Speaking to “State of the Union” host Dana Bash, strategist Hilary Rosen said Democrats were going to have “a bad night” on Tuesday after failing to fashion midterm election messages based on voters’ actual concerns, namely the economy and inflation, not abortion or ‘MAGA extremism.’
“I’m a loyal Democrat, but I am not happy. I just think that we are — we did not listen to voters in this election and I think we are going to have a bad night,” Rosen said, adding there was no time left to adjust messaging before Tuesday before warning Democrats to learn from the results she expects to see.
“You know, this conversation’s not going to have much impact on Tuesday, but I hope it has an impact going forward,” Rosen continued. “Because when voters tell you over and over and over again that they care mostly about the economy, listen to them! Stop talking about democracy being at stake! Democracy is at stake because people are fighting so much about what elections mean. I mean, voters have told us what they wanted to hear, and I don’t think Democrats have delivered this cycle.”
In response, CNN’s Bakari Sellers argued that while he agreed with Rosen on the Democratic Party’s national messaging, individual Democrats like Sen. Mark Kelly in Arizona ran good campaigns with messages allegedly addressing voters’ biggest concerns.
“In those places, what we have the unfortunate combination of strong gubernatorial candidates. You know, like Mark Kelly – I was just in Arizona and spent time there, talked to a bunch of voters. Mark Kelly is popular, but [GOP gubernatorial candidate] Kari Lake is more popular. And the combination of Kari Lake’s popularity and Joe Biden’s unpopularity is going to hurt Mark Kelly. And so, I think we’re in trouble because of the top of the ticket,” Rosen said.
As for Democratic chances up and down the ballot, Republicans in the final weeks of the campaign cycle appear to have pulled ahead in key races.
While most recent polling has indicated that Republicans were poised to regain control of the House, it has been less clear that the GOP could also grab the evenly divided Senate.
Until now, that is.
On Saturday, polling analysis publication FiveThirtyEight changed its Senate forecast from a “toss-up” to leaning Republican, Newsmax reported.
At president, the analyst firm lists Republican chances of winning the Senate at 55 in 100 versus Democrats retaining control at 45 in 100.
The new predictions come after the outlet reported on Monday: “Herschel Walker’s scandals may hurt his chances against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. Meanwhile, Democrats are hoping to pick up a seat in Pennsylvania, but that race has gotten a lot tighter recently.”
“Other Senate races are competitive but have identifiable favorites. For instance, strong Democratic incumbents currently have an edge in Arizona and New Hampshire. And the Senate races in North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin are also close but will likely result in Republican winners,” the outlet also added.
Last month, as President Joe Biden’s popularity continued to wane and Vice President Kamala Harris’ approval rating cratered, Democrats, in general, were losing ground quickly to Republicans ahead of Tuesday’s midterms.
And while it’s true that the party in the White House tends to historically lose seats in Congress, next year’s midterms are shaping up to be a complete political bloodbath for the party of the donkey, according to a new survey, which would mean the end of California Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s reign as House Speaker.
If the midterm elections were held today, the majority of registered voters say they’d support the Republican congressional candidate over the Democratic candidate in their districts, giving Republicans the largest statistical edge in four decades, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll.
The survey, which was taken after the Democrats passed their $1.2 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act earlier this month, shows 51% of registered voters saying they’d support the Republican candidate in their congressional district and only 41% saying they’d support the Democrat, spelling trouble for the party trying to secure its razor-thin majorities in Congress.
“That’s the biggest lead for Republicans in the 110 ABC/Post polls that have asked this question since November 1981,” ABC News reported.
