Democratic insiders predict 'doom' in November

(Image credit: Photo by Ken Cedeno-Pool/Getty Images)

Democratic insiders are feeling increasingly pessimistic about their party's chances of avoiding disaster in the November midterm elections, The New York Times reported Saturday.

"Are you calling to ask me about our impending doom?" one Democratic strategist asked a Times reporter. Jim Kessler of the center-left think tank Third Way recently gave a presentation in which he advised high-level Democrats not to consider any district "safe" unless President Biden won it by more than 12 percentage points in 2020. "If you're a district that is Biden plus 12 or less, you need to run like you're losing," Kessler said.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) expressed a similar fear earlier this week, arguing in an op-ed that "Democrats need to deliver more of the president's agenda" before November, "or else we will not be in the majority much longer."

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Democrats are almost certain to lose the House, where they currently hold a five-seat majority. The fate of the Senate will depend on the outcome of competitive races in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada.

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Grayson Quay was the weekend editor at TheWeek.com. His writing has also been published in National Review, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Modern Age, The American Conservative, The Spectator World, and other outlets. Grayson earned his M.A. from Georgetown University in 2019.