Renowned political analyst Charlie Cook, author of the Cook Political Report, detailed in a recent column that the Republican victory in Tuesday’s elections was greater than predicted but that the so-called wave does not amount to a tsunami. He wrote:
“We expected a Republican gain of five to seven Senate seats and noted it was more likely to be on the higher end of that range than the lower. As of now, it looks as if the GOP has gained seven seats, but that could grow to as many as nine once all of the votes are counted in Alaska—which could take a week or two—and pending a Dec. 6 runoff election in Louisiana.”
Likewise, the gains in the U.S. House and in governorships were larger than most predicted, as Cook explained:
“In the House, we were expecting a Republican gain of six to 12 seats, but … it looks like the GOP has achieved a net gain of 16 House seats … bringing Republicans to their highest number of representatives since World War II.
“We expected Democrats to pick up two to four seats in gubernatorial races; instead, it looks as if Republicans have achieved a net gain of three governorships.”
Cook qualified the difference between a ‘wave’ and a ‘tsunami’ as picking up a long-shot race that no one expected. He pointed to the razor-thin loss by Republican Ed Gillespie in Virginia against Democrat incumbent Sen. Mark Warner as the seat that may have qualified this cycle as a tsunami.
