The battle for the House, Senate, and Presidency will surely be hotly contested as we chug along toward November. The Republicans have a chance at their feet to take control of not just the House, but the US Senate, and control the Executive branch with Doanld Trump, should he defeat Kamala Harris. But not all even within the GOP are overly optimistic about November.
Texas congressman Tony Gonzalez, who represents an area near the border, is predicting Republicans will lose control of the House in which they currently hold a majority. His basis is on suggesting the majority has failed to address people's everyday concerns, adding if they lose, it will be because they beat themselves.
But former chair of the Texas GOP Steve Munisteri says in election years, there tends to be less turnover, and the Republicans do not have to do much to flip the Senate. They hold an advantage for now, but the focus needs to stay lasered.
"The only way the GOP loses the House and Senate is if we get complacent, and not do what we are supposed to do," he says.
Gonzales has said that Republicans going their own way, and not focusing on key issues like safety, is what will be their undoing, suggesting they are overly focused on politics.
Democrats are of course making their challenge to do the same thing and flip the chambers to themselves. They are doing so with a massive influx of mostly George Soros money to put attack ads on television.
While funding does play some role in races like this, it is not the main factor. In fact, in this case, it will not do anything to move the needle.
"There is a point which the marginal return of spending money starts to go down...the commercials are so saturated...does it really make a difference if you run ten, and the other runs eight," he says.
The human attention span too is usually about 15 minutes, and with smartphones, it can be cut to 15 second in an instant. That is another problem.
"We are at a point where after a couple ads, people stop paying attention...spending is a factor, but not a determining one," he says.
It is too early to tell how the House, Senate and Executive Branch will end up, but if the GOP focuses on the goal of winning, instead of political attacks, they may do something that will change the political landscape.
Photo: AFP