Newly reelected Congressman Tom Emmer (R- CD6) is putting a positive spin on the Republican Party’s performance in this week's Midterm Elections. Emmer told KSTP-TV Chief Political Reporter Tom Hauser on the WCCO Morning News that it's important that the GOP is flipping the House of Representatives for only the third time in more than sixty years.
“The big thing is, we are going to be in the majority,” says Emmer. “Republicans will have the majority in the House. There’s still a chance Republicans will be in the majority in the Senate as well. And then, guess what? Nancy Pelosi is not going to be the Speaker anymore.”
The full Election results are still not known, with CBS News classifying the House as “Lean Republican”, and the Senate as “Toss-Up”. Votes are still being counted in several states and Senate races in Nevada and Arizona won’t be known until next week according to Election officials in those states.
Georgia’s Senate race will also be decided by runoff Election in December with neither of those candidates reaching the necessary 50% of the vote according to that state’s constitution.
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Emmer did also confirm he is in the running for the House Republican Whip post, which is the third-highest position in the U.S. House of Representatives behind the House Speaker and Majority leader.
Emmer is already chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is in charge of electing Republicans to Congress. Emmer says Republicans did well enough in the Midterms and he says former President Donald Trump should be thanked for much of the success despite widespread blame towards Trump from other prominent Republicans.
“All I can say is Donald Trump actually helped in several ways, but most importantly on fundraising,” says Emmer. “He was a good ally. We are going to flip the House for only the third time since 1954. That’s historic.”
Some Trump allies were calling on him to delay his planned announcement next week, saying the party’s full focus needs to be on Georgia, where Trump-backed football great Herschel Walker’s effort to unseat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is headed to a runoff.
“I’ll be advising him that he move his announcement until after the Georgia runoff,” said former Trump adviser Jason Miller, who spent the night with the former president at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. “Georgia needs to be the focus of every Republican in the country right now,” he said.
Trump sought to use the midterms as an opportunity to prove his enduring political influence after losing the White House in 2020. He endorsed more than 330 candidates in races up and down the ballot, often elevating inexperienced and deeply flawed candidates. He reveled in their primary victories. But many of their positions, including echoing Trump’s lies about a stolen 2020 election and embracing hardline views on abortion, were out of step with the political mainstream.
Trump did notch some big wins Tuesday, particularly in Ohio, where his pick for the Senate, “Hillbilly Elegy” author JD Vance, sailed to easy victory after Trump’s endorsement catapulted him to the front of a crowded primary pack. In North Carolina, Rep. Ted Budd, an early Trump pick, kept an open Senate seat in GOP hands.
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But Trump lost some of the night’s biggest prizes, particularly in Pennsylvania, where Dr. Mehmet Oz, who only narrowly won his Senate primary with Trump’s backing, lost to Democrat John Fetterman. Trump-backed candidates also lost governors’ races in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Maryland, and a Senate race in New Hampshire, though Trump seemed to celebrate the latter, bashing Republican Dan Bolduc for trying to moderate his stances by backing off his embrace of Trump’s election lies.
“Had he stayed strong and true, he would have won, easily,” Trump said on his social media network. “Lessons Learned!!!” (Trump also cheered the loss of Colorado Republican Senate hopeful Joe O’Dea, who had said he thought it was time for the party to move on from Trump.)
While Republicans still appear well positioned to flip the House, and could ultimately take the Senate, too, those who had believed frustrations with record inflation, combined with President Joe Biden’s low approval ratings, would deliver swift and decisive victories were pointing fingers in the former president’s direction. The night’s message, they argued: The American people want to move on.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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