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Analysts explain why Democrats are no lock to flip the House
By Bob Fredericks
October 29, 2018 | 10:53pm | Updated
Most polling suggests that Democrats should flip the House of Representatives in the midterm elections — but some analysts warned that nothing is certain a week before the pivotal contests.
“Our current hard count in the House is 212 D, 202 R, 21 toss-ups. Neither party is over 218, a majority. Democrats have the better chance to go over the top, since 20 of 21 tossups are currently held by the GOP. That doesn’t guarantee that the Democrats actually will,†Larry Sabato, head of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, emailed The Post on Monday.
But another analysis on Monday predicted that Democrats had an 86.4 percent chance of capturing the House, while Republicans had only a 13.6 chance of keeping their majority.
Democrats, who would need to pick up 23 seats to gain control, reportedly plan to spend $143 million on TV ads in House races, compared to about $86 million for Republicans.
And even White House officials were pessimistic about their chances, with Bill Stepien, director of political affairs, already laying the groundwork to shift blame away from President Trump should the party lose the House.
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https://nypost.com/2018/10/29/no-guarantee-democrats-will-take-the-house-experts/