GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham declares the midterms 'Kavanaugh's revenge'

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) thinks he knows why Republicans were able to keep control of the Senate: It was all about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

In a statement Wednesday, Graham declared the 2018 midterm elections "Kavanaugh's revenge," celebrating the fact that three Democrats in red states who voted against Kavanaugh's confirmation were voted out of office. Those Democrats were Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), and Joe Donnelly (Ind.). Meanwhile, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who voted for Kavanaugh, won his re-election.

Graham concluded that this amounted to a "resounding rejection of the Kavanaugh smear campaign."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Although Kavanaugh may very well have made a difference in some voters' minds, it's worth noting that McCaskill, Heitkamp, and Donnelly were all already in tough races before allegations of sexual misconduct emerged against Kavanaugh, with Heitkamp being down about 10 points prior to announcing that she would vote no on his confirmation. Still, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) expressed a similar sentiment as Graham in a press conference Wednesday, saying that the Kavanaugh fight was like "an adrenaline shot” for the Republican base.