Democrats up for re-election during the midterm elections not only ran away from President Barack Obama but also from their own brand, Grover Norquist tells Newsmax.
"The wave was people moving towards the Republicans and away from the Democrats," Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, told J.D. Hayworth on "America's Forum" on
Newsmax TV Friday.
"I saw it with the Democrats hiding from their brand this entire [election] — not just running away from Obama — running away from the word 'Democrat,'" he said.
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"The Democrats have lost or damaged their brand in many, many cases, and they were running away from that," he said.
Norquist has been named the winner of
The Hill's 2014 election prediction contest, as the most accurate political pundit when predicting the outcome of the midterm elections.
He accurately picked who would win in Colorado, Iowa, North Carolina and Kansas. And his prediction that the Republicans will have a 53-seat majority when all is said and done is looking more likely, as Republican candidate Dan Sullivan is in the lead in the Alaska Senate race that is yet to be called. The Virginia and Louisiana Senate races could also go Republican.
Norquist tells Newsmax that he based his predictions on "some of the polls" but also on the momentum of the races as well as other factors.
"I was predicting [Republican Rep.] Thom Tillis to win in North Carolina, even though I'm not sure you would've drawn that from the polls," he said.
"Looking at where they had come, where the momentum was and knowing some of the ads that were being run, [Democratic Sen.] Kay Hagan in North Carolina had run some really nasty, vicious racists ads against Tillis," he said.
"Those were beginning to catch up with her," he added.
Norquist contends that the polls seem to be struggling with accuracy for a number of reasons — "one, people using cell phones, pollsters having trouble finding people and getting people to talk to them."
"Two, you never know whether people are going to vote, even if they intend to vote, maybe they don't," he said. "People get busy, and it's tough."
According to Norquist, the groups that compile "rolling averages" of the polls such as Real Clear Politics were the most accurate.
"That really fixes a lot of the problems of outliers, of people who ask the question a little bit off or who asked it on a different odd day," he said.
"You put that together and the averages did better than any one poll."
As for Republican presidential candidates in 2016, Norquist predicts that the nominee will be New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul or Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
"They're all governors except for Rand Paul," he said. "It'll be tough for anybody else to get on the stage at this point."
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