Cruz: GOP could face midterm ‘bloodbath’ without legislative wins

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is warning that Republicans could face a brutal 2018 midterm election cycle if they aren’t able to make good on their major campaign promises.

“If tax reform crashes and burns, if [on] ObamCare, nothing happens, we could face a bloodbath,” Cruz told a group of roughly 100 wealthy donors during an event in New York on Friday for members of the conservative donor network connected to billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.

Cruz, who is up for reelection in 2018, added that without a win on the party’s two biggest agenda items Republicans could see a “Watergate-level blowout.”

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He is referencing the 1974 elections, held in the wake of the Watergate scandal, where Democrats gained 43 seats in the House and several seats in the Senate.

Despite having the first unified GOP government in roughly a decade Republicans are struggling to score political and legislative wins.

And lawmakers are signaling growing concern that the slow pace of victories could cost them in the 2018 elections, especially among an increasingly frustrated conservative base.

GOP senators have failed to pass legislation repealing ObamaCare, and there are early signs that they could struggle in their push to get tax reform to President Trump’s desk this year.

Senate Republicans are facing a favorable map in the 2018 election, with Democrats defending 25 seats including 10 in states won by President Trump.

But the party is facing a nasty slate of primary fights, with former chief White House strategist Stephen Bannon and his allies actively seeking challengers to a number of GOP senators.