An attendee displays a sign during the Republican National Midterm Convention in Dallas, Texas, U.S., September 9, 2026. REUTERS/Jessica Koscielniak
Some of the country’s most seasoned political operatives from both parties are warning that Tuesday’s midterms could be a once-in-a-generation election that resets American politics for years to come.
A trio of political heavyweights spoke to Politico Playbook about this year's election and compared it to 2010, when Democrats were wiped out as Republicans gained 63 House seats, netted six Senate seats and flipped nearly 700 state legislative seats. Those wins handed the GOP control of redistricting and helped lay the groundwork for the Tea Party and, eventually, Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.
“We lost 20 legislative chambers,” Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic National Committee chair and Virginia governor, told Playbook. “And then what happened? We went into redistricting, and our party was wiped out at the state level for 10 years.”
This time, McAuliffe predicted, the tables will turn.
“This is going to be the Armageddon of all elections,” he said. “We’ve never seen anything quite like what is going to be happening on Tuesday. I truly believe this is going to define our country for a decade.”
He added that Democrats are poised to win not only the House but “Senate seats that people never thought possible.”
“We have the opportunity in ‘26 of doing the exact thing to them that they did to us,” McAuliffe said.
Republican heavyweights are bracing for the same outcome.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said the race “feels like an ‘06," when a Republican president mired in a Middle East war watched both chambers of Congress flip to Democrats.
“If they lose in the House and the Senate, it’s an inflection point,” McCarthy said. “If they lose just the House, it’s not as much, but it’s the beginning of an inflection point because you don’t change course until you nominate a new person for president.”
He urged his party to take the message seriously. “You need to listen to what the voters said,” McCarthy said. “You need to regroup.”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former Republican Governors Association chair, predicted that his party is “going to get walloped in the Latino vote, maybe back to you know Romney-era levels.”
Christie, a two-time presidential candidate who hinted at a third run, said his “decision-making process will begin after I see what happens on Tuesday,” and he faulted Vice President JD Vance's role in the midterms.
“JD Vance needs to own not only his portion of that defeat when it comes on Tuesday,” Christie said. “But more importantly than that, him contributing to the continued rotting of the morality of our party.”
Christie said the only thing left to “be determined Tuesday night is just how bad the news is.”
“It’s really bad news for my party,” he said.
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