WATCH: CNN Host Shuts Down Democrats’ Midterm Hopes
Published 2 hours ago
on July 16, 2025
By Cullen McCue
CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten on Wednesday threw cold water on the Democratic Party’s midterm elections hopes by pointing out that Democrats are lagging in the polls when compared with historical averages this far out from Election Day.
In the network’s latest survey, Democrats are leading Republicans by two percentage points on the generic congressional ballot. This is historically much lower when compared with 2006 and 2018, when the party also sought to regain control of the legislature with a Republican in the White House.
In July 2006 and July 2017, Democrats held a seven-point lead ahead of the midterms, Enten said after citing his own aggregate data.
“Democrats are behind their 2006 and 2018 paces when it comes to the generic congressional ballot … Look at where we are now, Democrats are ahead, but by just two points,” Enten said. “Look at where Democrats were already ahead by in 2017, they were ahead by 7 points. How about 2005 on the congressional ballot? Ahead by 7 points, ahead by 7 points, and now they’re only ahead by 2 points? That lead is less than half of where it was in either 2017 or 2005 in July.”
The data analyst then noted that public opinion on Trump, for better or worse, does not appear to be enough for Democrats to rally around. “Democrats have not come anywhere close to sealing the deal at this particular point,” Enten said.
In addition to troubling results on the generic ballot, Democrats are also lagging in terms of breaking down congressional races by individual seats. “Okay, House seat ratings with a GOP president like back in 2005 and of course 2017. More net pickup seat chances. Well, last time around, look at that. Democrats were ahead by 33 seats. How about in 2005? Democrats were ahead by seven seats. What’s going on right now? It’s actually Republicans,” Enten continued.
This time around, Republicans hold a 12-point lead in terms of net pickup opportunities, according to partisan leans measured by the Cook Partisan Voting Index.
“So it’s not just on the generic ballot where Democrats are behind their 2017 and 2005 pace. It’s actually when it comes seat by seat, you see that at least at this particular point, Republicans actually have more net pick up opportunities. This doesn’t look anything like those wave elections back in 2006 or 2018,” Enten continued.
All in all, the CNN data reporter concluded that Democrats appear to be in a similar position to the lead-up to the 2024 election rather than the “blue wave” years of 2006 and 2018.
“And so of course Republicans actually held onto the House back in 2024. Will it happen this time around? We’ll just have to wait and see. But for anyone who’s writing the Republican House’s political obituaries, hold the phone. This is a reality check.”
https://rumble.com/embed/v6u2yns/?pub=4https://trendingpoliticsnews.com/watch-cnn-host-shuts-down-democrats-midterm-hopes-cmc/
