Republicans are primed to win big and seize control of the Senate, says Kyle Kondik, director of communications at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics and managing editor for "Sabato's Crystal Ball, " which forecasts political races.
"At the end of the day, as in after all recounts and runoffs, the Republicans are going to control the Senate and somewhere between 52 and 53 seats," Kondik said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
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"West Virginia, South Dakota and Montana all look like pretty easy Republican pickups, that's three seats. Over the past few weeks, Arkansas went from a small Republican lead to a bigger Republican lead so that's a fourth seat.
"Louisiana looks likely to go to a runoff, although ultimately the Republicans are favored there, but we have to put that one to the side. If you try to project it forward, it'll be a Republican pickup at the end of the day. That can potentially be five later on. Colorado, Iowa and Alaska are all Democrat held seats."
Kondik said while many of the races are close, GOP candidates are favored in all of them.
"If you assume the Republicans hold Kentucky and Georgia, Georgia might also go to a runoff, but the Republicans are favored either on Tuesday or in an eventual runoff," he said.
"Those will be Republican holds and then you've got Kansas where it's between Pat Roberts, a Republican incumbent, and Greg Orman, the Independent. It looks like Roberts might pull it out, but even if he doesn't, it's also possible Orman might caucus with the Republicans.
"You've got a lot of close races, but Republicans are positioned to end up winning most of them and that's how they end up getting to a majority.
Kondik said U.S. elections traditionally have anti-Democrat years and anti-Republican years.
"This is more of an anti-Democrat year than anything else," he said.