Democrats are getting ready for the 2022 midterm elections understanding that the results could be disastrous.
President Joe Biden attended his first in-person Democratic Committee fundraiser Monday, the Washington Examiner reported, as some in the party have criticized his efforts to conduct such events and lament that there is not a cohesive party vision going into the elections.
Political commentator Costas Panagopoulos told the Examiner that the outlook for Democrats in the midterms was "gloomy" considering the "powerful forces" and crisis that have plagued the administration since taking office in January 2021.
"Throw in lackluster approval ratings for Biden, soaring inflation, and gas prices, and mixed signals overall in the economy," he told the publication.
Biden has touted the $2 trillion American Rescue Plan and $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed during the first two years of his term as victories that helped the country economically amid the COVID-19 pandemic recovery.
"The American economy was flat on its back. It was the Democrats — it was you that brought us back," Biden told Democrats attending a party retreat caucus in Philadelphia last week.
Despite those legislative victories and hoping to confirm the first black female U.S. Supreme Court Justice — Ketanji Brown Jackson — Biden’s poll numbers have plummeted since his first day in office, now standing at just 42%, according to a CNN review of recent polls.
That is just two points above his low before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the State of the Union address to Congress.
This year’s elections will see all 435 House of Representative and 34 Senate seats being decided, according to Ballotpedia.
Redistricting from the 2020 census and other factors led to 40 House members retiring, meaning Democrats must gain a net of five seats to hold their majority in that chamber, and gain at least one seat in the Senate to win a firm majority in that chamber.
History is also allied against Democrats as the party controlling the White House usually loses seats during midterm elections, like the 60-seat "shellacking" Democrats took in 2010 while former President Barack Obama sat in the Oval Office.
While things may look bleak for Democrats in November, Panagopoulos told the Examiner that there may be some "bright signs" for the party.
"There are bright signs for the president and for the party in November, including recent victories in redistricting battles that may help in some House races, problematic GOP candidacies for the Senate and, depending on how things play out, a crisis in Ukraine that may cause many Americans to rally around the flag and Biden and boost his ratings, thereby helping in the midterms," he told the publication.
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