Democrats Would Lose House Majority If Midterms Were Held Today: Official

Democrats Would Lose House Majority If Midterms Were Held Today: Official
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on July 20, 2021. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)
Jack Phillips
8/4/2021
Updated:
8/4/2021

One of the top House Democrats issued a warning to other vulnerable Democrat representatives that they have to change course or the party risks losing its majority during the 2022 midterms, said a Democrat official.

Tim Persico, executive director of the Maloney-chaired Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), confirmed to Politico on Tuesday that Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chair of the DCCC, shared data with incumbents showing that if the midterm elections were held today, Democrats would lose their slim majority and hand the House over to Republicans.

“We are not afraid of this data ... We’re not trying to hide this,” Persico told the news outlet. “If [Democrats] use it, we’re going to hold the House. That’s what this data tells us, but we gotta get in action,” he added.

The Epoch Times has contacted Maloney’s office for comment.

One of the issues for Democrats, according to the report, is messaging and what Democrats are trying to do to reboot the country’s COVID-19-hit economy.

“The point is, to make sure that we’re all on the same page, that we understand the stakes,” Persico told the outlet. “Here’s the good news: Everything we are doing and everything we’ve talked about doing is incredibly popular.”

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) at a press conference in Newburgh, New York, on Oct. 3, 2016. (The Epoch Times)
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) at a press conference in Newburgh, New York, on Oct. 3, 2016. (The Epoch Times)

Internal polling, he claimed, suggested that President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan was “wildly popular” and said that “nothing in this poll suggests anything about altering our agenda. It’s about emphasis.”

Generally, the party that wins a presidential election loses at least one of the chambers of Congress. In 2018, two years after former President Donald Trump’s victory, the House flipped back to being Democrat-controlled.

But in 2020, Republicans made strong gains in the House and flipped a number of seats. Two Republicans in early May also advanced in a special runoff election as the top two vote-getters for Texas’s 6th Congressional District—with no Democrats advancing. Several days ago, Republican Jake Ellzey defeated fellow GOP candidate Susan Wright to become the latest member of Congress.
One of the losing Democrat candidates in early May issued a warning after her defeat, saying that the midterms “could be a major setback” for Democrats in the House.

“On Saturday, Republican candidates got 62 percent of the vote to 38 percent for Democrats (R+25). All the things I thought would motivate Democrats, such as the attempted violent overthrow of a legitimate election result, along with Snowmaggedeon … failed to get our voters out,” Democrat Jana Lynne Sanchez wrote on Monday after finishing third with 13 percent.

“I’m sounding the alarm bell: If Democrats don’t organize and prepare, 2022 could be a major setback to our gains of recent years,” she said.

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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