DNC chief: We have a problem

The Democratic National Committee is planning a “top-to-bottom assessment” of its campaign strategy after suffering worse-than-expected defeats in last week’s midterm elections.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.), who leads the group, announced Saturday that a committee will examine the party’s performance in the 2014 and 2010 elections.

“We are going to look at where we fell short. We’re going to identify our mistakes,” she said in a video that was sent to party supporters.

“Our party has a problem,” she added.

The committee will specifically look at messaging, get-out-the-vote efforts and digital operations. It will form in the next few weeks and present a report at the organization’s winter meeting in early 2015.

This year’s midterms lost the Democrats a total of 12 House seats and seven Senate seats, a stunning blow that went beyond most election forecasts. The GOP also unseated three Democratic governors in historically blue states.

“I’m not going to gloss over the facts: On Tuesday, the Republicans had a good night. We didn’t. We worked hard for months, we even won a few tough races, but it wasn’t enough,” she said.

In addition to losing control of the Senate this week, the Democratic party has lost 69 seats since Obama took office.

Democrats have historically struggled in midterm elections, which has a far lower turnout among younger and more diverse voters – a key part of the party’s base.

The party had better luck in 2012, however, when the president helped Democrats win back eight seats in the House.