Appearing on Connecticut’s NPR affiliate WNPR, President Barack Obama remarked that “this election cycle this is probably the worst possible group of states for Democrats since Dwight Eisenhower.” Obama also noted that while Democrats are competitive in the states, they tend to “tilt” in the GOP’s direction.
WNPR: Mr. President, do you see the governor’s races in this election differently than you see the Senate races? The Senate races are so much about the map, right? Which states are red and which states are blue, and you can pretty much predict a lot of them in advance. Governor’s races seem to have different sets of issues. How do you see the governor’s races this time, and do you see them differently than you see the Senate races?
Obama: There’s no doubt that when you look at the Senate races, because of the fact that only a third of the Senate is up at any given time, it tends to be a little bit arbitrary which seats are really going to be contested and which aren’t. So, for example, in this election cycle this is probably the worst possible group of states for Democrats since Dwight Eisenhower. There are a lot of states that are being contested where they just tend to tilt Republican and Democrats are competitive but they tend to tilt that way.
When it comes to governor’s races, as you said, it is much more about that state and people’s concerns about jobs and schools, and education funding, and the issues that are particular to that state. And what we’re seeing, actually, out of the dozen or so gubernatorial races around the country– they are all tied. That probably speaks to the fact that voters are generally frustrated with government. They know things have gotten better from where they were six years ago, but they don’t see the kind of cooperation between Democrats and Republicans they would like to see. The polarization has gotten worse. Obviously, I have a strong opinion as to why that happened.
