DNC says ‘no way' Republicans hold the House

The vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) says he predicts there is "no way" that Republicans would be able to preserve their majority in the US House of Representatives.

Michael Blake made the comment in an interview with The Hill on Tuesday, three weeks before the midterm elections.

“There is no way the Republicans are going to hold the House,” he said, downplaying reports of GOP voters becoming more motivated to cast their ballots.

The DNC official said the upcoming elections was becoming similar to 2016 in that many disaffected voters eventually decided to reconcile with their party.

“At the end of the day, the polling has essentially leveled out where we expected. People came back home,” he said.

Blake, however, said a repeat of the last presidential election is unlikely as Democrats have learned from their former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s decision to take certain states’ votes for granted.

“The biggest difference is that we didn’t mobilize our base,” Blake said. “When you look at Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania in particular, we did not mobilize as Democrats in these areas that we should have. If you don’t campaign in Wisconsin after losing in the primary, if you don’t mobilize in Western Michigan, you don’t mobilize in Western Pennsylvania, you’re going to lose those states.”

The three states were among several Democratic strongholds that flipped to the then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, enabling him to win an electoral college majority even though he lost the national popular vote by several million.

According to Blake, Democrats inside and outside the party have also realized that the Republican candidate was able to defeat Clinton in 2016 because many people on the left believed her victory to be inevitable,

“I think people are walking and saying, ‘You know what? 2016 was a horrible experience in that many people thought this was done.’ They’re not going to allow that to be the case this time,” he said.

The DNC vice chairman said he believed Democrats would secure at least 30 seats in the Lower Chamber.

“It’s hard to see that not happening in every possible way,” he said. “The reality is everything is demonstrating that we will do this and take this back.”

In a survey published on Monday, US voters expressed more interest in turning out to vote in midterm congressional elections, with Democrats enjoying more support than the ruling Republicans.

PressTV-Americans more likely to vote this midterm elections: Poll

Americans are set to vote in one of the most polarised midterm congressional elections in decades.

The Washington Post-ABC News poll showed some 77 percent of registered voters are certain to vote next month or have already voted, up from a 65 percent majority in Post-ABC polls in October 2014.

US midterm elections take place at the halfway point during each presidential term and usually experience weak turnout due to a lack of enthusiasm. But President Trump’s election in 2016, has made Americans more engaged than ever with the polarized political climate.

Trump has been traveling all across the country to rally his base by raising the specter of being impeached if Democrats take back the House, even as Democratic leaders have downplayed the idea.

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