Democratic strategist James Carville says believes his party is going to have a tough time taking back the Senate in 2018, and said that doing so would be "very, very, difficult."
"I think right now most Democrats are trying to focus on the 2018 elections and trying to recruit people and keep incumbents, and you know I would say we have a pretty good chance of taking the House back. The Senate is very, very difficult" Carville told New York radio host John Catsimatidis.
"The problem in the Senate is we have a large number of seats we have to hold in states that Donald Trump carried. Indiana, Missouri, you know, places like that we have to hold seats," Carville added. "The only places where we have an opportunity for pick up are, you know, Nevada is pretty good. After that Arizona is less good, then you’re down to Texas and Alabama, and for Democrats to win the Senate back, they have to pick up three seats."
Democrats are currently fighting an uphill battle to regain both the House and the Senate. After rolling out bumper stickers that promoted a "more of the same" message rather than something the that would help rejuvenate their base, and it's been reflected in recent polls. On Sunday, masked by President Donald Trump's abysmal approval ratings, 52 percent of Americans said they believe the Democratic Party only stands against Trump, rather than representing an identity of their own.
When Carville was asked if someone was in charge of the party at the moment, he replied, "no."
"If a party is out of power, and we don't have a presidential candidate, there's no one going to be in charge until sometime in 2020," he added. "But I think right now most Democrats are trying to focus on the 2018 elections and trying to recruit people and to keep incumbents."
In terms of the future, Carville is confident there will be plenty of candidates running to try to defeat Trump in 2020. "It will be double digits," he said. "There will be a number of serious candidates that are going to run on the Democratic side, and our party needs that."
Listen to the full interview below:
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