Democratic and GOP strategists assess midterm landscape in final week

With under a week left before Election Day, strategists from both parties told PBS NewsHour that Democrats are positioned for a good night, and the open question is its scale. Republican strategist Doug Heye said the GOP expects to lose the House and is mostly wondering by how much, while the Senate outcome in about seven states remains impossible to predict. Democratic strategist Mo Elleithee said a bigger House margin would help Speaker Hakeem Jeffries govern, and called the Senate a coin flip. He named Ohio, Kansas and Alaska as promising pickups and described Texas as a toss-up.

Both men pointed to South Carolina as a sign of Republican trouble. A fresh New York Times poll found Darline Graham and Democrat Annie Andrews essentially even. Heye blamed a lackluster Graham campaign and President Donald Trump's weak approval numbers. Elleithee said candidate quality is hurting Republicans nationwide.

They also discussed a New York Times account saying Democrats helped bring a second Dan Sullivan into the Alaska Senate contest to aid Mary Peltola. Trump urged Peltola to quit and called it voter fraud. Elleithee called the move foolish but lawful, and doubted it would matter much.

Summarized by PolitiKool from PBS NewsHour’s reporting. Read the full story at PBS NewsHour →