Republicans will take the Senate, winning up to 53 seats in the midterm elections, GOP strategist Karl Rove told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" on Tuesday, but said it may be January before the outcome of close races was known.
Polls show Republicans hold a slight lead over their Democratic challengers in Senate races in Kentucky, Iowa, and Colorado. Rove admitted the tight races made it hard to predict which party would end up in control of the Senate.
Story continues below video.
"I think the Republicans end up by December or January taking 51, 52, or 53 in the Senate. But it is going to be razor thin, and it could go either way, because the races are so close," said Rove, who was deputy chief of staff to former President George W. Bush.
The ground game could make a critical difference in the races, Rove said, but added it was an exaggeration to say Democrats had the thorough knowledge of their voters that they claim.
"If they could find all their voters, why was it in 2012 that [President] Barack Obama only got 97 percent of the vote that he got in 2008?" Rove asked. "I think this is a desperate hype of 'We're going to be able to dramatically change the nature of the electorate by our ground game.'"
Rove predicted Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell would win in Kentucky against Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, who had entered a "desperation stage" by not answering how she voted for president in 2008 and 2012.
"It looks cheesy. She said it was a constitutional right [not to say who she voted for]," Rove said. "Everybody knows she voted for Obama. She ought to just say it."
Republican Joni Ernst will no doubt win in Iowa against Democrat Bruce Braley, Rove said, adding the race would be "awfully close and go right down to the wire."
In Colorado, Rove explained the ground game of each Senate candidate would probably decide the race. He said Republican Cory Gardner had a "massive ground game effort" to match that of incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Udall.
"The question is, is the race in Colorado close enough, and is Udall's ground game that much better than the Republican ground game that gives him this critical advantage?" Rove said.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.