There is fresh optimism among Democrats that the November midterm elections may not be the disaster they once expected. A string of legislative victories, including the Inflation Reduction Act and aid for veterans exposed to burn pits, has boosted President Biden’s approval ratings and re-energized his party. Despite the renewed hope, Straight Arrow News contributor David Pakman warns that Democrats still face an uncertain outlook in a handful of key midterm races, including the crucial Senate race in Georgia.
Maybe the most humiliating poll for the United States – this is embarrassing for all of us, my friends – is in the Georgia Senate. In the Georgia Senate, Raphael Warnock is the incumbent Democratic senator. Warnock is intelligent; Warnock has deep, nuanced understanding of a number of different political issues; Warnock is a really interesting candidate and he is the incumbent. And Herschel Walker, former football player, is the Republican nominee and Warnock is only leading by one on average. Walker can’t even speak, okay. There are a hundred senators. Being in the Senate, ideally would require intellectual rigor. I mean, ideally… it doesn’t, but ideally it would require some intellectual rigor. It would require deep understanding of issues. It would require the ability to put together a single coherent sentence and Herschel Walker can’t even do that. And somehow Warnock is only winning by one.
Some viewers have written to me and said, “David, you know, I’ve said this before and I wasn’t serious, but if Walker wins, I’m quitting politics. I’m not saying I’m moving to Canada, but I’m quitting politics.”
Couple other examples here. Let’s stick with Georgia…Georgia gubernatorial [race], the incumbent Brian Kemp is leading Stacey Abrams by about five. That’s just horrible. Stacey Abrams is brilliant, maybe responsible for more voter registration in the state of Georgia in the last decade than any other single person. Great candidate and Brian Kemp, who’s just a horrible, standard, no-policy Republican, is winning by five.
And then lastly in Texas, Greg Abbott is the current Republican governor. Abbott has overseen a dramatic clampdown on women’s rights, abortion rights. Abbott has overseen this completely horrifying isolation of the Texas power grid. He didn’t create it, but he cheerleads it and he supports it and he thinks he’s great. He thinks it’s great. And Beto O’Rourke is running against him. O’Rourke is a smart Democrat, not a far-left guy, but good on guns, good on women’s rights and Abbott is winning by about seven.
So there’s lots of good that we can find in the 2022 midterm polls, but there’s also a lot that’s really, really bad.