Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C) admitted on Tuesday night that the results of the midterm election so far is not want Republicans were expecting.
“Definitely not a Republican wave, that’s for darn sure,” Graham told NBC News’ Lester Holt and Savannah Guthrie during the network’s election night coverage.
Heading into election night, Republicans were expecting to pickup several seats in the House and comfortably flip the Senate in what was to be a ‘red wave’ election, seen as a referendum on President Joe Biden’s first two years in office.
However, several moderate Democrats held on in races Republicans were expected to win, like the New Hampshire Senate race and Virginia’s 7th congressional district.
Graham took issue with the far-right New Hampshire Senate nominee Don Bolduc, who lost to Democrat Maggie Hassan: “If you run that far behind your governor candidate, you probably made a mistake.”
Though Graham did not say at the time, a similar situation is now playing out in Georgia where Trump-backed candidate Herschel Walker is running far behind incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp. Kemp defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams. The race was called on election night. Walker is still struggling in the race against Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock.
Still, Graham remains hopeful that Republicans can still flip the Senate, saying: “I think we’re going to be at 51, 52 when it’s all said and done in the Senate.”
