President Trump often employs the power of positive thinking when it comes to his own shortcomings, choosing to promote the wins rather than wallow or search for lessons in the losses. And so it was with his claim of a "very close to complete victory" in Tuesday's election, even though Democrats took control of the House.
Touting his blitz of rallies, especially in the two months before the election, Trump said his vigorous campaigning "stopped the blue wave that they talked about," resulting in a "great victory."
"And the history really will see what a good job we did in the final couple of weeks," he said, "in terms of getting some tremendous people over the finish line."
In 2018, he held 44 "Make America Great Again" rallies and tweeted endorsements of 83 candidates. In all, 91 Republican candidates got some kind of nod from Trump.
But Trump's actual success record fell well short of a "complete victory." Overall, approximately 55 percent of the candidates he endorsed have won so far in Tuesday's voting.
Using tweets as a stand-in for endorsements, in primaries, Trump's chosen candidates fared remarkably well, with a record of 27-1. But in the general election, where Republican base voters weren't the only ones deciding the outcome, Trump's scorecard is mixed, with 50 wins, 34 losses and seven races not yet decided (as of this writing). That's counting candidates he tweeted endorsements for or who spoke onstage at MAGA rallies with him. There were also two special House elections in 2018, which one of his candidates won and one lost.
In the closing week of campaigning, Trump turned away from the House, where many of the most competitive races ran through suburbs, focusing his attention on Senate and gubernatorial races in states where he is relatively popular.
On election night, White House political director Bill Stepien explained, "these are Trump states and his record of achievements going back to his historic 2016 victory put these races in play."
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