(FreedomBeacon.com)- The GOP has reportedly won the popular vote for the House of Representatives, despite being unable to bring along with it the much anticipated “red wave” that so many Republicans were projecting. The popular vote supposedly favors Democrats and was won by the party by 8.6 points in 2018. This year, Republicans were able to snag it by just over 4 points, according to Cook Political Report.
Republicans, who received 53,131,042 votes contrasted with Democrats’ 48,799,895, currently enjoy a narrow majority in the House, which they were poised to take despite losing the Senate.
Sean Trende, a senior election analyst at Real Clear wrote that Republicans did better with black and Hispanic voters, but that did little to translate to winning more seats.
Democrats greatly support the popular vote, with 60% reportedly wishing to abolish the electoral college altogether. Former President Donald Trump’s victory in 2016 especially sparked a backlash from Democrats who argued that presidents should not win without securing the majority of votes.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told Fox News that he thinks the GOP should set up a postmortem-type review of the midterms to determine what the party did right, similar to what they have done in the past.
“Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the RNC, ought to set up a similar review committee,” Gingrich said, referring to when the GOP won the House in 2014 and then-RNC Chairman Reince Priebus asked him to develop one of his own.
Gingrich also discussed how some incumbents lost this year who should not have, despite no incumbents losing in 2020 under McCarthy’s leadership. He noted that the 6 million vote lead, although likely to shrink, needs to be analyzed because no additional seats were gained from it.
“There’s something going on out there that we don’t understand,” he said.
The alleged “red wave” never did materialize for Republicans, with many blaming the former president. Trump has come out in response to those critics and announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential race, even taking hits at Governors Glenn Youngkin and Ron DeSantis in a fashion similar to his 2016 campaign.
