Political scientist Michael Cornfield said on Wednesday that Republicans should have done better in the midterm elections given the state of the economy.
“Given the numbers in the economy at the macro level, the Republicans should have done even better,” Cornfield, the director of the GW Politics Poll, told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha on “What America’s Thinking.”
{mosads}”Yet, that was not their story. It did not poll well, the tax cut, and Donald Trump did not go out and tell a story about the economy,” he continued.
“If he did, it was after telling his story about border security,” he said.
The economy added 250,000 jobs in October, with an unemployment rate at 3.7 percent.
Trump devoted much of his focus to immigration while campaigning ahead of the midterms, pointing specifically to the caravan of immigrants in Mexico traveling toward the U.S. border as a security risk.
Politico reported on Monday that Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) pushed Trump to focus more on the economy in his final message to voters ahead of the midterms.
However, Trump reportedly responded by saying his immigration focus has fired up his base.
Republicans lost the House majority, but gained seats in the Senate.
— Julia Manchester
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