As much as this year's midterm election was expected to be a red wave, that did not turn out to be the case. It certainly was nothing like 1994, when Democrats lost 52 seats in the House. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), who helped usher in that red wave during then President Bill Clinton's first midterm election, shared his take while on Fox News Channel on Wednesday morning.
During "Fox & Friends," Gingrich acknowledged "we did not do as well in the House and the Senate as I thought we'd do," to which he added "there's a lot to study about what happened." He did, however, stress "we did very well with governors" and that "in that sense it was a huge night for Republican government at the state level." This included in his state of Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) once more beat Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams in a rematch from 2018.
Gingrich and co-host Steve Doocy discussed how "the big red wave that was predicted has not happened yet." There's still several more races to call, though, to determine which party controls each chamber. Gingrich kept reiterating he was "surprised," especially given that many predicted the issues of inflation, the border, and crime would be more so of a factor and "would have made for a very big Republican night."
In the end, though, Gingrich offered that perhaps President Joe Biden's strategy of going after his Republican opponents and threatening that democracy was on the line worked. "Much as I think it's despicable," Gingrich made clear about such a strategy, "the Biden strategy of demonizing Republicans, and attacking Republicans, and defaming Republicans, I think did have an impact and will probably become the definition of the Democratic Party."
Doocy and Gingrich did agree that there was that red wave in Florida with Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R-FL) win, as well as that of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), which had Gingrich predicting DeSantis "will almost certainly become the rallying point for everybody in the Republican Party who wants to move beyond President Trump," adding that "will certainly make for a remarkable race." Both DeSantis and Trump could end up running in 2024, with Trump potentially announcing on November 15.
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If this does become "the definition of the Democratic Party," and there's no reason to think it won't now, it does put to shame even more so that Biden claimed to run in 2020 to help unify the country and that he cares about the soul of the nation.
Republicans in 1994 benefited in part from the red wave due to their Contract with America that they released. House Republicans released their own plan, the Commitment to America agenda, in late September, though it was leaked beforehand allowing Democrats to respond.
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