Not 'much going for them': Fox legend tramples GOP’s chances this year

Mediaite reports Fox News Chief Political Analyst Brit Hume “did not sugarcoat his assessment “of Republicans’ chances heading into November’s midterms.

On Wednesday’s Special Report, Fox’s Bret Baier pointed to a recent Fox News poll showing Democrat Abdul El-Sayed leading Republican Mike Rogers in the U.S. Senate race in Michigan, 51 percent to 48 percent. Mediaite reports the same poll last month showed Rogers leading by four points.

It also revealed nearly 70 percent of likely voters in Michigan claimed cost of living is an “extremely” important issue in the race, leading all others by 20 points or more.

“Brit, you look at those polls. Obviously, it’s a close race, and we’ve seen this in a number of these races,” Baier pressed. “What do you make of it?”

In Hume’s own words, he didn’t appear to make anything good of it for team red.

“Well, in the Michigan race, that’s a margin-of-error number,” Hume told Bair. “It may indeed have turned slightly in El-Sayed’s favor. But I don’t think it’s necessarily a poll that’s flipped. The margin’s just too small.”

But Hume went on to say much worse, according to Mediaite.

“Overall, Bret, I would say that the Republicans don’t have much going for them this cycle. And the polls all suggest that,” said Hume. “The mood of the country suggests that. They do have more money than the Democrats do, which could be spent wisely, one would imagine, to help them. But this 69 percent number that you show there on cost of living, I don’t think much is gonna change on the cost of living over the next month. It could change a little. Things have turned around a bit in the Strait of Hormuz. But I think what Republicans have to worry about is opinions have solidified and not in their favor. And that number suggests that that may be the case.”

President Donald Trump remains woefully unpopular, so much so that prospective Republicans are scrubbing his name from their websites.

Mediaite reports that polls “show Democrats consistently ahead of Republicans on the generic congressional ballot,” and “some GOP seats once regarded as solidly GOP are now in play.” Other analysts point out that The share of Republicans who say the economy is better than a year ago has collapsed from more than 70 percent in January to 29 percent in September, according to last week’s.

As Hume suggests, Republicans are broadly expected to lose their narrow House majority and potentially even the Senate.