Carville: ‘It’s not going to be a wave election’

Democratic strategist James Carville said late Tuesday that the 2018 midterm elections won’t be decided by a blue wave.

“Tonight, there was some hope that the Democrats would have a wave election,” Carville told MSNBC as election results rolled in.

“It’s not going to be a wave election. It could still be a good election,” he said, pointing to Florida and Texas.

James Carville: “It’s not going to be a wave election. It could still be a good election.. but, we’ll wait and see.” pic.twitter.com/LkYpJzNDjN

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 7, 2018

“But you know there’s still a lot of politics left,” he said. “But … we’ll wait and see.”

“Hopefully the Democrats get the House back,” he said.

The day before the election FiveThirtyEight gave Democrats a 6-in-7 chance of taking the House; around the time Carville spoke, that dropped to a 39.3 percent chance.

The 538 forecast has dropped to just a 39.3% chance that the Democrats take the House tonight.

That is something that was unthinkable just 24 hours ago for most…

Still a lot of time to go tonight, but this is not the start to #ElectionNight that Democrats wanted. pic.twitter.com/Xk3WmsjTLG

— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) November 7, 2018

“I was a little more optimistic about Florida than it’s turned out to be,” Carville commented. “I think we have nail-biting in a lot of places tonight.”

Former Rep. Ron DeSantis (R) also pulled ahead of Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D) in the race for governor of Florida around the time Carville spoke, according to The New York Times.

Gov. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) also nudged ahead of Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) in the state’s Senate race by the Times’s metrics.