NBC political reporter skeptical Kavanaugh will energize GOP voters through midterms

NBC News national political correspondent Steve Kornacki said in an interview that aired Friday on “Rising” that he is skeptical Republicans will be able to maintain the energy surrounding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in the midterms.

“I’m skeptical because I’ve seen in the polling. And I was talking to the NRCC [National Republican Congressional Committee], which does the House races for Republicans, they were talking about a surge in grass-roots donations just in the last week or so, almost definitely because of Kavanaugh, but you see how fast the news moves right now,” Kornacki told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball on Thursday. 

“You see how fast we jump from one sort of existential controversy to another,” he continued.

Some Republicans have said that the GOP base will be galvanized by the fight over Kavanaugh’s nomination and turn out in November.

Kornacki noted that there is already enthusiasm on the Democratic side. 

“We’ve already seen energy on the Democratic side. The question to me is not will there be energy on the Democratic side, the question is will the Republicans be able to match it enough to hang on,” he said. 

Kornacki is promoting his new book, “The Red and the Blue: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism.”

An NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll released on Wednesday found that 80 percent of Republicans polled said the November elections were “very important,” while 82 percent of Democrats polled said the same. 

The gap between the two parties was much larger in July, with 78 percent of Democrats saying the elections were “very important,” while 68 percent of Republicans said the same. 

— Julia Manchester