Midterm elections are generally a referendum of sorts on the current administration and party in power. Given that Democrats control the White House, the House, and the Senate, albeit narrowly, these upcoming races are a referendum on the Democratic Party and its disastrous policies. While Senate Republicans seem to be content with letting Democrats, with their extremist policy views and agenda items, do the messaging for them (it's worth noting that the Senate is considered a "Toss-Up"), House Republicans are taking a different approach.
Unlike Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who's expressing a lack of confidence in the electability of some Republican candidates, and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), vacationing on his yacht in Italy while calling out Democratic candidates, House Republicans, who are favored to take back control of their chamber when it comes to the upcoming midterms, have more of a concrete plan, which includes turning to a proven winner, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA).
The Washington Post piece Axios's Josh Kraushaar shared is from January of this year, but has been making the rounds as November 8 quickly approaches, now just a little over two months away.
As the piece mentions, Gingrich was the architect of "Contract with America," which is credited in part with helping Republicans win 52 seats in the House during President Bill Clinton's first midterm election in office. Republicans also won eight seats in the Senate. Gingrich was propelled to the Speaker of the House following those election wins.
The former speaker has also more recently commented on the November races, highlighting in an op-ed for Fox News, "Media refuse to see Republican wave coming this November."
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"The legacy, left-wing media is at best misunderstanding – and at worst deliberately distorting – the evidence that a Republican-led wave election is coming in November," Gingrich warningly begins his piece.
Forecasters have indeed started to point out that the "red wave" may be more of a "red ripple," but a win is a win all the same. That the emphasis is on how Republicans are supposedly faring worse than they were months ago is still telling.
Polling has been the same way, with an even more obvious bias. CBS News/YouGov released their battleground tracker poll on Sunday, with an emphasis on Republicans having a smaller predicted lead than they did last month. Tweets about the poll highlighted the abortion issue – which isn't as important an issue for overall voters – and a very small increase in Biden's overall approval rating and approval ratings for specific issues, per that poll. That being said, the president still polls terribly.
Even more telling is that tweets from CBS did not choose to emphasize how Republicans have an advantage in the generic congressional ballot and voter enthusiasm.
Republicans are in a better position to take back the House, where Gingrich has his area of expertise. He does still weigh in on the state of the race for the Senate, however, which includes pointing to the precarious situation for vulnerable Democratic incumbents:
This is especially true in the U.S. Senate, where Republican candidates are well positioned to regain control of the body in a mass repudiation of President Joe Biden and the Democrats’ policies.
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The media is also obsessing over Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s recent comment that the Senate elections would be tough for Republicans. In all fairness to McConnell, his super PAC has since poured tens-of-millions of dollars into these races – and he clearly intends to win them. At the same time, pundits and reporters are ignoring the deeply positive, optimistic attitudes from the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senate Committee, and a host of other Republican Senate-focused groups. The media is also ignoring the massive Republican voter enthusiasm. We have seen enormous Republican turnout and voter registrations across the country.
As I wrote earlier this week, every Democrat Senate incumbent has to carry heavy burdens in November – the Biden record and their own votes. The Democrats running for Senate in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, New Hampshire, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Washington have voted with the Biden-Democrat agenda between 96 percent and 98 percent of the time this Congress.
Another reason that Democrats and their allies are gleeful about the midterms is because of the results in the special election in New York's 19th Congressional District, which elected Democrat Pat Ryan over Republican Marc Molinaro by a difference of two percentage points.
"To claim this Democrat victory as a sign of things to come is either ignorant or dishonest. New York's 19th District is reliably blue. In 2020, the Democrat won by 11.6 percentage points," Gingrich offered.
For all the chatter from Democrats and the mainstream media, Republicans are still largely forecasted to win the House. While many predict the Senate is a "Toss-Up," it's still possible that Republicans could end up controlling both chambers as an even further check on the president.
