Democratic lawmaker Cedric Richmond told NBC that increased voter turnout for President Trump caused Democrats to lose seats in the House.
“It was a rough and tough election and I will say this, and I’ve gone back and looked at numbers and other things, Donald Trump increasing Republican turnout made a big deal.”
Most polls suggested Democrats would increase their majority in the House. But instead, Republicans have flipped 12 seats and gained at least 8 seats.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has downplayed the losses. Last week, she said she knew in 2018 when Democrats flipped a number of seats in districts won by Trump in 2016 that it would be hard to keep them in 2020.
But then she pointed to Democrat nominee Joe Biden receiving more votes in total than Trump.
She said, “People say, ‘Well, the Democrats didn’t turn out.’ No, we did. We turned out. In fact, more than 3 million, more than the Republicans did.”
Richmond said a post-election audit could show Democrats where they did well and where they didn’t do well.
The official vote totals won’t be known until all election results are certified.
