Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) lamented Republicans’ failure to pick up early wins in Tuesday night’s midterm elections.
“Definitely not a Republican wave, that is for darn sure,” Graham said during an appearance on NBC during the network’s coverage of the election, anchored by Lester Holt and Savannah Guthrie. “I think we’re going to be at 51, 52 when it’s all said and done in the Senate.”
Early results and projections in key races on Tuesday night showed a number of moderate Democrats holding onto key seats in the U.S. House, while Republicans notched major wins in solidly red states like Florida and Ohio.
Graham said of Don Bolduc, a Trump-aligned Republican candidate for Senate in New Hampshire who lost, “when you run that far behind your governor candidate, you probably made a mistake.”
“I was in charge of Guam, so I want to take credit for that,” Graham joked.
Republicans were widely expected to win major gains in both the House and Senate in what had been predicted as a “red wave” during this year’s midterms, seen largely as a referendum on inflation, crime and other issues facing Americans during President Biden’s first term.
A number of key congressional races, primarily on the West Coast, remained without a result as of late Tuesday evening.
UPDATED: 11:57 P.M.