Dem whip: ‘Possible’ House could flip in November

The second-ranking House Democrat on Tuesday said it’s “possible” that his party could win back control of the lower chamber in November.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the minority whip, emphasized that it’s a long shot for the Democrats to pick up the 30 seats they need to win back the House after six years in the minority. 

But citing an analysis from University of Virginia’s Larry Sabato — an election expert predicting the House would flip if Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton does very well in November — Hoyer said the gavel is not beyond the Democrats’ grasp.

{mosads}”I certainly think we’re going to pick up a significant number of seats, and I think that it is possible that, if in fact Mrs. Clinton does that well, then we will take back the House,” Hoyer told reporters in the Capitol.

Sabato’s analysis predicted the Democrats would pick up 39 House seats — and take the chamber — if Clinton’s edge over Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is 2 percentage points greater than President Obama’s margin over GOP nominee Mitt Romney in 2012. 

Hoyer was quick to note that such an outcome “is a stretch.”

“He doesn’t say it’s going to happen,” Hoyer said.

But Hoyer also said he’d traveled the country to stump for more than 20 Democratic candidates over the long August recess, and he likes what he sees.

“They’re optimistic about their chances, and I am as well,” he said.

Republican leaders have a different view, saying they’re fully confident the House will remain in their hands next year. It was a message amplified Tuesday by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who told reporters he feels “very secure that Republicans can keep the House.”

“At the end of the day, we’ll be in the majority,” McCarthy told reporters in the Capitol.

The competing comments come as the country’s top election handicappers predict the Democrats will make significant gains in the House — picking up between 10 and 20 seats — but fall shy of the 30 seats they need to win back control of the chamber.

Many Democrats have hoped that Trump’s bombastic campaign, and his penchant for alienating large groups of voters, might lead to the type of wave election that could propel the Democrats to power even in the face of the largest Republican majority since the Great Depression.

Hoyer, an 18-term lawmaker, characterized the election as the “most volatile” and “most unpredictable in which I’ve been involved.” He said he’s hopeful that the “deep divisions and dysfunction” within the Republican conference will shift public sentiment to the Democrats’ side up and down the ballot.

“I have great confidence in the American people and in their common sense and in their judgment,” he said. “And I think Hillary Clinton’s going to do very well, and, quite frankly, I think we’re going to do very well in a lot of the districts where we’re not perceived to have had a shot at.” 

— Scott Wong contributed.