Senator Lindsey Graham has admitted that Republicans have failed to generate a red wave of support at the polls in the midterm elections.
“Definitely not a Republican wave, that is for darn sure,” Mr Graham said during an appearance on NBC’s election coverage on Tuesday night. “I think we’re going to be at 51, 52 when it’s all said and done in the Senate.”
Mr Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, admitted that nominating pro-Trump candidate Don Bolduc in New Hampshire, who lost to incumbent Democrat Maggie Hassan, had been a costly error.
“When you run that far behind your governor candidate, you probably made a mistake,” he said on the broadcast.
“I was in charge of Guam, so I want to take credit for that,” he jokingly added.
And he added: “A wave would have been capturing New Hampshire and Colorado. So hats off to them. They have performed well in a lot of these swing districts.”
Candidates endorsed by Donald Trump scored early wins, including Matt Gaetz in Florida, Marjorie Taylor in Georgia and JD Vance in Ohio.
But Democrats, in a year where Republicans believed they were taking back Democratic territory with concerns about crime rates and high inflation, won at-risk Senate and House seats. The likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Gavin Newsom and Chuck Schumer also easily won their contests.
Control of the Senate is likely to come down to the races in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada.
