Fox News pundit Marc Thiessen has described the midterms as a “searing indictment” of the Republican Party, calling election day an “an absolute disaster” for the GOP.
Speaking overnight Tuesday during the network’s election coverage, Mr Thiessen said that Republicans need to “take a look in the mirror” after the so-called “red wave” failed to appear.
“There is a broader issue and think about this – we have the worst inflation in four decades,” he said.
“The worst collapse in real wages in 40 years, the worst crime wave since the 1990s, the worst border crisis in US history, we have Joe Biden who is the least popular president since Harry Truman, since presidential polling happened, and there wasn’t a red wave.”
“That is a searing indictment of the Republican Party. That is a searing indictment of the message that we have been sending to the voters. They looked at all of that, looked at the Republican alternative and said ‘no, thanks’.”
Mr Thiessen, a former White House speechwriter under President George W Bush, criticised the party’s support of “radical candidates” who he said have now left “the Republican Party in a terrible position”.
“The Republican Party needs to do a really deep introspection look in the mirror right now because this is an absolute disaster for the Republican party and we need to turn back,” he said.
“We need to look at who won today – [Florida Governor] Ron DeSantis, [Ohio Governor Mike] DeWine, these governors ... [Georgia Governor Brian] Kemp ... [Texas Governor Greg] Abbott.
“Look at these governors, this is the path to the future and electing these radical candidates who ran far behind them has put the Republican Party in a terrible position and voters have indicted the Republican Party”.
While control of the Senate and the House still remains unclear, Democrats have so far performed much better than expected, pushing back on the “red wave” that the GOP had predicted would unfold.
Instead, the Republican party looks likely to end up with one of the worst performances in decades during a first midterm election of a presidential term by the party not in the White House.
As of Wednesday morning, key Senate seats in Nevada and Arizona remain too close to call.
If Democrats win both seats, they could hold on to the upper chamber without having to worry about the results of a possible 6 December runoff in Georgia between Republican Herschel Walker and Democrat Raphael Warnock, who are currently neck and neck.
Democrats flipped a Senate seat in Pennsylvania where Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman defeated Republican TV doctor Mehmet Oz in the fight for outgoing GOP senator Pat Toomey’s seat.
Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Michael Bennet of Colorado also both won reelection in races where Republicans were hoping to turn the tide red.
Republicans did however notch wins in Ohio and North Carolina where Donald Trump-endorsed candidates JD Vance and Ted Budd came out ahead.
In the House, only a single Democratic incumbent had been defeated in the House by early Wednesday – Elaine Luria in Virginia. Longtime Republican Representative Steve Chabot also lost his seat in Ohio.
The GOP did manage to pick up two open seats in the House that had been vacated by Democrats in Florida.
While the reelection of the chairman of the House Democratic campaign operation Sean Patrick Maloney remained in peril, two Democrats in tight races – Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Chris Pappas in New Hampshire – held off their challengers.
