OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Republicans are poised to perform very well on Tuesday night in the midterm elections. MSNBC spoke to voters in the Democratic stronghold of South Texas and asked Latino voters about who they were voting for in the upcoming election.
One lifelong Democrat named “Iris” told MSNBC she would be voting for Republicans because she was dissatisfied with Democratic leadership and policies.
“I’ve been staunchly Democrat all of my life. It hasn’t been until recent that I’ve been undecided. I started voting Republican here at the local level. I think it’s just people are tired of the same old, same old, the same status quo, where we keep voting the same people in and nothing is changing,” Iris said, noting that the Democrat Party’s support for the “defund the police” movement turned her off.
“Defund the police definitely does not resonate with me,” she told the liberal outlet, adding that she supports “law and order” as well as prison reform.
WATCH:
Life-long Democrat Latino voter: “We keep voting the same people in and nothing's changing." pic.twitter.com/0Wik5uM4wd
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 7, 2022
Political consultant Eddie Aldrete told MSNBC that the pushback against progressive crime policies was personal to many Latinos in South Texas and has pushed many to vote Republican.
“Here you have a heavy presence of border patrol, I.C.E., Homeland Security investigations, ATF, DEA, as well as local police and county sheriffs. And so many sons and daughters are in those agencies and representing and working there. And so the defund the police argument here doesn’t quite translate as much as it does in other parts of the country,” he said.
A top Democratic strategist did not sound hopeful for her party during a panel discussion on CNN.
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.”
WATCH:
Longtime dem strategist @hilaryr: “I'm a loyal Democrat, but I am not happy. I just thinking we did not listen to voters in this election and I think we are going to have a bad night”
Notes that voters kept saying the economy was the number 1 issue
pic.twitter.com/Omh9pqtl50— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) November 6, 2022
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 Nancy Pelosi’s reign as House Speaker.
