This story was originally published on nationaljournal.com on October 21, 2016 Republicans will now have four years to think about what they did to themselves this year, plenty of time to contemplate the consequences of handing over their party’s car keys to the tea-party movement and watching as the quintessential tea partier, Donald Trump, drove the car over a cliff. If Republicans are really, really lucky, their current 54-46 Senate majority will only be cut back to 51-49. Losing the Senate is at least an even bet, and some analysts think the GOP’s chances are much worse than that. If the Republicans are really fortunate, they can keep their House losses down to 15 seats or so, half of their current margin. Then there are the 12 gubernatorial races, where Republicans once hoped to pick up three to four seats. Also in play are 5,920 of the nation’s 7,383 state legislative seats, 80.2 percent of the total, according to Ballotpedia. State legislative seats are a party’s future, their seed corn. Democrats can tell you what having devastating midterm elections can
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