The Political Insider

A new report details how Democratic leaders are keeping their expectations low for the 2022 midterm elections, including the possibility of Republicans controlling both the House and Senate.

This news comes from a Politico report.

RELATED: Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ Spending Blowout Reportedly Dead For Now

‘I don’t see any way we keep the House’

Politico reported, “Democratic Party leaders moved quietly this week to lower expectations for the midterm elections as they met for year-end talks against the backdrop of an increasingly bleak electoral landscape.”

“The House? Likely gone. The Senate? A crapshoot,” the news outlet noted.

“Interviews with more than two dozen state party chairs, executive directors and strategists suggest party officials are reframing the 2022 election as a defensive effort, with success defined as maintaining the Democratic Senate majority and holding back a Republican tide in the House,” Politico observed.

The Senate is a tall order – the chamber is evenly split 50-50. 

Democrat National Committee chair Jaime Harrison said, “My goal is — even if it’s slim, if it’s by one — it’s keeping control of the House and adding at least one or two more to the United States Senate.”

A Democratic strategist in Charleston, South Carolina said, “If we’re in the 10 to 20 [loss of House seats] range, that will be better than we thought.”

One state party chair told Politico, “I don’t see any way we keep the House.”

The Democratic Party of New Jersey’s vice chair, Peg Schaffer, said, “I’m scared. We need to get the vote out, and in the midterms, it’s hard.”

Nevada Democrat Party chair Judith Whitmer was more optimistic about 2022.

“We have to stop with this tendency to have a self-fulfilling prophecy,” said Whitmer. “We keep hearing this narrative, ‘It’s going to be a bloodbath.’ … I don’t think we should look at it like that.”

While true, President Biden’s polls are in the dumps. 

Making matters worse for the Democrats – generic Republican ballots hold a double-digit lead for the first time ever. 

That didn’t even happen during the massive red waves in 1994 or 2010.

RELATED: Democrat Says She Was ‘Totally F***ed’ By Democrat Colleagues, Says They Should Have Drawn Congressional Maps To Benefit Her

Some Dems Optimistic

“I think we have to be optimistic,” Whitmer insisted.

Some Democrats believe Biden’s success is key to their party’s chances. 

“If Democrats are able to muscle voting rights legislation through Congress and also pass Biden’s Build Back Better agenda — and if inflation and Covid come under control — one state party executive director said Democrats could at least maintain a sufficiently large minority in the House to ‘block bad things from happening,” Politico noted.