Republicans are trying really hard not to let on that Jon Ossoff exceeded expectations for a Democrat’s performance in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District on Tuesday. Sean Spicer even got into the game on Wednesday. But some Republicans are willing to go off message—at least anonymously—and admit that there might be reason to worry, Politico’s Austin Wright reports.
“I think we’re fooling ourselves if we don’t recognize that the Democratic anger is real,” said Glen Bolger, a longtime Republican pollster who co-founded the firm Public Opinion Strategies. “The biggest lesson is, guess what, we’re heading into a midterm where we control everything and it’s going to be tougher than when we were the out-party.”
Another Republican strategist, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the Georgia and Kansas races show that Democrats have “a ton of enthusiasm. They’re going to raise a ton of money.”
Republican Rep. David Brat—who should know from upsets, having defeated then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a primary—said that the result was “a little bit of a wake-up call” for his party. May it be the first of many wake-up calls, and may the Republicans remain fast asleep and let Democratic enthusiasm carry 2018.