Democratic strategist James Carville on Saturday appeared on Fox News and joined the growing swell of Republicans with his forecast of a “wipeout” of their party in this year’s midterm elections — a prediction that took “Saturday in America” host Kayleigh McEnany aback.
The discussion was largely prompted by a New York Times op-ed published Thursday by David Plouffe, a political consultant and ex-adviser to former President Barack Obama, who predicted that the Democratic Party will inevitably lose the 2028 presidential election.
Plouffe argued that the party is “still in crisis” after President Donald Trump swept all seven swing states in the 2024 election, and that Democrats currently have “no credible path” to retake the White House after recent adjustments to the electoral college map.
When asked about his thoughts, Carville said he isn’t too concerned about that.
“David is a big-brained guy who’s looking into 2030, what happens in the 2030 census, and that’s good,” he said. “I’m looking at the 2026 elections, and frankly, it’s going to be a wipeout. The Democrats are going to pick up at a minimum 25 seats, maybe as high as 45.”
Carville continued, “In all likelihood, the Democrats are going to carry the Senate, and I think we’re shaping up very well for the 2028 election. But I don’t know, 2030 is…I’m 81, that might be on the other side of my horizon, to be frank with you.”
This surprised McEnany, who recently cast an opposite prediction about the midterms.
“Yeah, so, 25 to 45 seats,” she said. “That’s a bold prediction, and you are crushing my prediction on ‘The Five,’ which was that [liberal co-host] Jessica Tarlov would have an unhappy night and Republicans would overperform — which I still believe.”
McEnany continued, “The trend lines are very good, James, when you look at inflation coming down, when you look at GDP. You think an economic revival, that I think will come, cannot demolish the trend you’re seeing?”
Carville acknowledged, “Well, I guess anything is possible.”
Things took a considerably more serious turn when Carville noted that Republicans might not lose a thing — as Trump told Reuters on Wednesday that “we shouldn’t even have an election” — and said Trump was clearly “hinting at the fact he’s going to try to call them off.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed Thursday that the president was “simply joking” and “speaking facetiously” when he said this, arguing to reporters that Trump simply meant, “We’re doing such a great job … maybe we should just keep rolling.”
McEnany agreed with Carville that “the important thing” right now is to ensure they happen.
While he inaccurately predicted that then-Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris would beat Trump in 2024, his forecast of trouble for the GOP aligns with concerns shared among current and former Fox News hosts, as well as GOP consultant Karl Rove.
