Politics

DCCC’s Israel On Dem Losses: ‘It Was A Pretty Ugly Night’ [VIDEO]

Al Weaver Reporter
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The GOP took over the majority in the Senate and multiple blue-state governorships Tuesday night, but the GOP’s gains in the House flew under the radar.

Republicans are now projected to hold 250 seats in the House heading into the new Congress, and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel considers himself fortunate it wasn’t worse. Israel told “Morning Joe” Wednesday “was a pretty ugly night,” even though the House “did contain the wave,” in his estimation.

Israel: It wasn’t a great night. In fact, it was a pretty ugly night, to be blunt about it. There is no way around that. Look, I think that there is a seething anger by the middle class at Washington, and I think that both parties need to listen to that. I agree with Joe [Scarborough]. This isn’t necessarily about Super PACs, it’s about the middle class’s pocketbooks and it’s about our ability to come together where we can, and I think we can come together on some key middle class economic security issues. And that’s what has to happen now that this election is mercifully behind us.

Willie Geist: I’m curious as you watched last night, which of these races surprised you. We have been talking about the Virginia senate race, which I don’t think was on a lot people’s radar as a closely contested race. The Maryland governor’s race, you could list about ten or 12 of them. Which ones kind of stunned you the most?

Israel: I was surprised this ended up the way it was. I mean, 2006 was a wave election for Democrats and the Republicans lost 30 seats. 2010 was a wave election for Republicans. Democrats lost 63 seats. This was a wave election at every level. The only good news for us in the House is that we did contain the wave. I think we will end up topping out at about 15 seats. There are still some elections that haven’t been called. We were able win in some pretty tough Republican areas, like Joe’s state in Florida. It looks like we may win a race in a Republican district in Omaha, Nebraska, and maybe flip one in California. But the bottom line is that I did not believe that this was going to be a wave election, more of a wave for senators and governors, less of a wave for us [in the House]. But we still lost and we need to do better in 2016.