DNC Chairman Tom Perez cites trends as indication Dems could take the House
Tom Perez appeared on "The View" today.
— -- Historical trends and promising outcomes of recent elections suggest Democrats could take back the majority in the House of Representatives in 2018, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez told "The View" today.
Perez noted that Democrats are losing, but by encouraging margins, citing the April special election in Kansas' 4th district where he said Democrats were expected to lose by 30 percentage points but lost by less than 7.
"If we keep taking the margins down by 20 points like we have done, we're going to take 50 seats," Perez said.
Democrats hold 193 seats and need to gain 24 to be in the majority.
"If you look at our history, the last three times we have had single-party control ... the following midterm election, the party out of power won 28 seats,” he said.
He added, however, that "History ... is not always prologue."
Perez, a former labor secretary, said there are 71 congressional districts "more competitive" than Georgia's 6th district, where Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff lost to Republican Karen Handel Tuesday by less than 4 points.
Perez says he was "disappointed" by that election, but suggested it was to be expected. "This was Newt Gingrich's old seat. Democrats haven't won there in 37 years,” he said of the former speaker of the House.
"All of the seats that have been in play, the congressional seats are beet-red districts," he added.