Republicans are bracing for Democratic blowout on Tuesday: ‘It could be quite a brutal evening’

Republicans are bracing themselves for a Democratic blowout in Tuesday’s midterms, with some expecting “a brutal evening” and already expressing resignation about losing their majorities in Congress, according to a report.President Donald Trump has placed himself front and center of GOP campaigning, attempting to encourage conservative turnout by urging voters to behave as though he himself were on the ballot, rather than zeroing in on specific issues.The strategy threatens to backfire, however, given his deep unpopularity and historically low approval ratings, currently the lowest of his second term at 30 percent – according to Pew Research – and the worst of any sitting president going into the midterms since Harry Truman in 1946. “It could be quite a brutal evening,” one senior Republican strategist told Politico. “Once the dominoes start falling it becomes hard to stop them.” The outlet reports that House Republicans are privately discussing not just whether they will lose their majority in the lower chamber, but by how many seats, while some GOP incumbents in districts once considered safe are pleading party leaders for emergency funding. Republican strategists are reportedly bracing for ‘a brutal evening’ Tuesday, with once-safe seats now in jeopardy such as the Texas Senate spot where Republican Ken Paxton (pictured) is in a tight race with a Demcorat (AFP/Getty)Others have reportedly ceased doing their own polling, preferring simply to look away.Senate Republicans, meanwhile, have begun to fret about their prospects in red states won easily by Trump in 2024, such as Ohio, Kansas, South Carolina, Texas and Louisiana.“The cakewalk turned into a knife fight,” a member of the GOP in Louisiana said, summing up Senate nominee Julia Letlow’s race. “If Democrat turnout surges on Election Day, it’ll be a long night in Monroe.”The party of the president often performs poorly at the midterms and Republican strategists have long taken a pessimistic outlook because of that factor and the electorate’s clear disapproval over the Iran war and Trump’s perceived inaction on affordability. They are nevertheless facing “a worse position than they expected earlier this year,” according to Politico.“Any Democrats telling you they aren’t winning the Senate [besides] a couple of seats are sandbagging expectations,” one particularly dismayed senior Republican is quoted as saying.“I can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said another. “It might be a semi-truck, but at least I can see it.”President Donald Trump has been hosting red state rallies hoping to gee up support for the likes of Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Trump has called on his backers to pretend he is on the ballot (Getty)Perhaps most damningly of all, the outlet writes: “One Republican strategist working on midterm races simply responded to a question about the environment with a video of a dumpster on fire that was being swept away by flood waters.”The atmosphere of defeatism appeared to be getting to Trump himself Thursday, who snapped at a Reuters journalist who asked whether an abrupt decision to cancel weekend rallies in Kansas and Iowa was due to his health. “You are disgusting,” the president told him. “Put yourself in shape. You look like hell.” The president has since reversed course and those rallies are now back on his schedule. One particular area of concern to conservatives is the prospect of young men – who turned out in droves to support Trump two years ago – refusing to back him again, alienated by what they see as broken promises over the economy.Whether that fear will be realized remains to be seen and one Senate Democratic operative struck a much more cautious note: “I would rather be us than them. But if anyone tells you they know what’s going to happen, they’re full of s***. Everything is close.”Around 40 million Americans have already cast their ballots in this year’s midterms, which will have major repercussions for the second half of Trump’s final term and could render him a lame duck, powerless to pass his legislative agenda and under investigation by newly-energized and emboldened Democrats on Capitol, Hill.