Tom Emmer Does Not Deserve to Be GOP Whip

If you had predicted what would happen on Election Night a week ago, even the most optimistic Democrats — and the most pessimistic Republicans — would have checked you into a psychiatric hospital. Republicans are headed into the fight of their lives to keep their current 50/50 Senate split in a Georgia runoff, where their candidate is the decisive underdog. As the dust settles on the final House races, the GOP appears poised to eke out one of the slimmest majorities in U.S. history, but Democrats still have a slim path to maintaining their hold on the lower chamber — and regardless, a single-digit Republican margin is a far cry from the party’s optimistic expectations going into last Tuesday.

Democrats are the first in-power party since 1934 to successfully avoid losing a single state legislative chamber during a midterm election. And the party actually made pivotal gains in state houses and senates from Minnesota and Michigan to Pennsylvania and Vermont. Blue states such as Massachusetts and Maryland traded highly popular Republican governors for Democratic ones. In purple states and districts across the country, Republican hopefuls fell short.

About the Author

Nate Hochman

Nate Hochman was a staff writer at National Review.

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If you had predicted what would happen on Election Night a week ago, even the most optimistic Democrats — and the most pessimistic Republicans — would have checked you into a psychiatric hospital. Republicans are headed into the fight of their lives to keep their current 50/50 Senate split in a Georgia runoff, where their candidate is the decisive underdog. As the dust settles on the final House races, the GOP appears poised to eke out one of the slimmest majorities in U.S. history, but Democrats still have a slim path to maintaining their hold on the lower chamber — and regardless, a single-digit Republican margin is a far cry from the party’s optimistic expectations going into last Tuesday.

Democrats are the first in-power party since 1934 to successfully avoid losing a single state legislative chamber during a midterm election. And the party actually made pivotal gains in state houses and senates from Minnesota and Michigan to Pennsylvania and Vermont. Blue states such as Massachusetts and Maryland traded highly popular Republican governors for Democratic ones. In purple states and districts across the country, Republican hopefuls fell short.