Newly elected Dems downplay midterms results as referendum on Trump

Reps.-elect Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) on Sunday downplayed the influence President Trump had on their respective victories in last Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Slotkin, who defeated Rep. Mike Bishop (R) in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that her race was not a referendum on Trump.

“I think honestly we were able to amass support from Democrats, Republicans and independents because the overall tenor and tone of politics I think is fundamentally unbecoming of the country,” Slotkin said.

{mosads}”So the president … is certainly a part of it, but it was an overall feeling like Washington was broken and integrity had just been evaporated from the system,” she added.

Underwood, who unseated Rep. Randy Hultgren (R) in Illinois’s 14th Congressional District, attributed her win largely to the incumbent’s voting record. She noted that Hultgren voted for the GOP tax bill last year and for the Republican health-care plan that failed in the Senate, and said he failed to act on gun violence.

“The president was certainly a factor,” she said. “But in the Illinois 14th District, we had not been well-represented. We had a congressman who was not carrying forward our voice.”

Democrats made sweeping gains in last Tuesday’s election, which many viewed as a referendum on Trump’s first two years in office. Democrats secured a majority in the House, and flipped a number of governor’s seats and state legislative seats.

Republicans added at least one seat to their majority in the Senate, though close races in Arizona and Florida have yet to be called.