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President Trump claimed victory at a press conference on Wednesday after Democrats took control of the House, but Republicans retain their majority in the Senate.
Mark Wilson / Getty Images
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Mark Wilson / Getty Images
President Trump claimed victory at a press conference on Wednesday after Democrats took control of the House, but Republicans retain their majority in the Senate.
Mark Wilson / Getty Images
President Trump often uses the power of positive thinking when it comes to his own weaknesses, choosing to promote victories rather than wallowing or looking for lessons to be learned from losses. And so it is with his claim of a "very close to complete victory" at Tuesday's election, even though the Democrats have taken control of the House.
Speaking his blitz of rallies, especially in the two months leading up to the elections, Trump said his vigorous campaign "stopped the blue wave they talked about," culminating in a "big victory".
"And history will see how well we have done in recent weeks," he said, "when it comes to recruiting great people on the finish line."
In 2018, he organized 44 "Make America Great Again" rallies and tweeted downstream of 83 candidates. In all, 91 Republican candidates received some sort of nod from Trump.
But Trump's record of success is far from a "complete victory". In total, about 55% of the candidates he sponsored won the vote on Tuesday.
Using tweets as a substitute for annotations, during the primaries, the candidates chosen by Trump stood remarkably well, with a record of 27-1. But in the general election, where Republican base voters were not the only ones to decide the outcome, Trump's scorecard is mixed, with 50 wins, 34 losses and seven races not yet decided (to date). This is what counts the candidates for whom he tweeted the mentions or who spoke at MAGA gatherings. There were also two special elections in the House in 2018, won by one of his candidates and lost by the other.
During the last week of the campaign, Trump turned away from the House, where many of the most competitive races in the suburbs were taking place, focusing his attention on Senate and governorship races in states where he is relatively popular.
On the night of the election, White House political director Bill Stepien said, "These are Trump states and his track record dating back to his historic victory in 2016 puts those races in play."
In total, out of the 17 governorship candidates approved by Trump, nine have won, seven have been lost and one has not yet been decided.
The last week of rallies seems to have borne fruit since the Republicans won the governors' races in Florida and Ohio and Senate seats in Missouri, Tennessee and Indiana. In Georgia, although Republican governor candidate Brian Kemp declared his victory, the race has not been announced yet and Democrat Stacey Abrams has not conceded.
Trump spoke of governorship victories in important states such as Ohio and Florida, but he did not acknowledge the losses suffered by Republicans in Colorado, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin and in Pennsylvania.
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On Wednesday, Democratic Senator Jon Tester won a victory in Montana. It was a race that interested Trump personally because Tester was involved in the appointment of White House doctor Ronny Jackson as secretary of the VA. Trump has staged four rallies in the state this year, but has failed to push Republican Matt Rosendale over the finish line.
Trump's record with Senate approval up to now: nine wins, nine losses. Three races remain undecided.
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Trump claims that he has defied history because Republicans made gains in the Senate midway through. But this year's races took place in an extremely friendly territory for Republicans. Many Democrats were re-elected in the states won by Trump in 2016.
Among the losses in the House were a number of Republican candidates who failed to embrace the President. In their neighborhoods, Trump was poisonous and they felt that they had to distance themselves from him to survive. But they lost anyway. In his press conference Wednesday, Trump mocked them.
"They have worked very badly, I'm not sure I'm happy or sad, but I feel good, Carlos Curbelo, Mike Coffman – never mind, Mike," said Trump disdainfully before going through several other candidates pushed back on his rhetoric or his policies. "Mia Love did not give me any love, and she lost, too bad, sorry for that, Mia."
It is not at all clear that the adoption of Trump would have changed their fate given the mood of voters in these districts. Of the eight lost candidates, Trump called Wednesday for not holding back enough, but Trump has approved three.
Overall, Trump recorded 32 wins, 18 losses and three still undecided home runs.
Naomi Shah, an intern at the NPR Washington Desk, contributed to this story.
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