As Democrats absorb their historic losses from Tuesday's midterm elections, pundits are already reflecting on what it means for the 2016 presidential prospects of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
According to
Politico, Clinton will likely face much pressure from her party to declare her candidacy as soon as possible, giving supporters and donors a new leader to rally around.
Clinton, on the other hand, may choose to delay a planned announcement so as to distance herself from the party's losses.
The losses could also give Clinton a new strategic opportunity to tap into the anti-Washington sentiment among voters that drove the midterm results.
The results will make it easier for her to separate herself from President Barack Obama. At the same time, she might also be able to campaign against a GOP Senate that may struggle to unify the conservative and establishment wings of the party, Politico said.
Clinton also will benefit from the success of minimum wage ballot initiatives in the red states of Arkansas and Nebraska. The results demonstrate a populist momentum behind an issue that she has been campaigning on for months.
Meanwhile, the new political landscape gives the White House a chance to nudge Republicans further to the right, potentially giving a new center ground for the likely Democratic nominee in 2016,
USA Today reported.
But the results are not all good news for Clinton.
For one, the defeat of Democratic challenger Charlie Crist in Florida to
Republican incumbent Rick Scott means that she will have less leverage in a pivotal state for the presidential election.
The situation is similar with
Republican Joni Ernst's win in Iowa.
Ernst will be a strong surrogate for the eventual GOP nominee and a detractor of Clinton's, Politico said.
New Hampshire Democratic Sen.
Jeanne Shaheen's re-election victory, however, will likely boost Clinton's chances in the early primary state.
Separately, the results could prompt the Democratic party to "pull to the left," USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page said, moving closer to the "Elizabeth Warren wing" of the party.
"There is another effect from this election tonight that could affect Hillary Clinton, and that is the fact that a lot of those moderate Democrats in the Senate are the ones who are endangered. You're going to have a Democratic caucus that is more uniformly liberal," Page told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Tuesday, according to the
Washington Free Beacon.
Separately, the poor showing of Democratic candidates could also be a bad reflection on Clinton, who made 45 campaign stops throughout the election season on their behalf.
Kentucky
Sen. Rand Paul, a possible GOP presidential rival, underscored that point by posting on his Facebook page numerous pictures of Clinton with Democrats who lost their races, along with the hashtag "#HillarysLosers."
"Today, voters sent a message to President Obama and Hillary Clinton, rejecting their policies and many of their candidates," the post says.