Washington Examiner investigations editor Sarah Bedford said it’s “not shaping up to be a favorable year for Republicans,” as history indicates that the House of Representatives will flip to Democrats.
“It was likely that the House was going to flip to Democrats before any of the redistricting wars,” Bedford said on the Hugh Hewitt Show on Wednesday.
Bedford said that historically, the party in power tends to suffer during the midterm elections. She thinks that will be the case even more so this year for Republicans, since they only hold a slim majority.
“Their majority was just so small that even the slightest political breeze would have tipped it to Democrats,“ Bedford said.
“It’s not shaping up to be a favorable year for Republicans, so you are probably going to have headwinds that [are] stronger than a breeze.”
Bedford considered that if the House flips, impeachment inquiries into President Donald Trump are likely on the table.
“You already have Democrats like Graham Platner, who is going to be the likely Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, saying that one of his top priorities if he gets to Washington is to investigate, [and] potentially impeach Trump.”
BY THE NUMBERS: HOW MANY SEATS HAS EACH PARTY GAINED IN REDISTRICTING?
The House impeached Trump twice during his first term, but he was ultimately not removed from office upon acquittal by the Senate.
Bearing this in mind, Bedford said: “It still looks likely, or at least possible, that Republicans could retain the Senate.”