5 Battleground House Races Now Favor Democrats with Mere Weeks Until Midterms: Cook Political Report
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Democrats are now favored in five key House races with only two months until the midterms.
On Thursday, The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter — a nonpartisan newsletter that tracks elections and predicts how they will swing — changed its forecast for House races in battleground states including Alaska, Arizona, Maryland, New York and Virginia.
The Cook Political Report, per The Hill, now predicts Republicans will win by 10 to 20 seats down from 15 to 30 seats in its earlier analysis.
The election in Alaska is now considered a toss-up — rather than likely Republican, the newsletter says.
The updated rating comes after former Republican Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin lost to Democrat Mary Peltola in a bid to serve out the remainder of Republican Rep. Don Young's term in the U.S. House on Wednesday. Palin, Peltola, Republican Nick Begich and Libertarian Chris Bye are expected to vie for the seat again in November.
RELATED: Sarah Palin Loses Special Election for Alaska's Only House Seat to Democrat Mary Peltola
In Arizona's 4th District, the rating was updated from lean democratic to likely democratic in the battle between Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton and Republican Kelly Cooper.
Maryland's 6th District is also now considered to be likely democratic as Democratic Rep. David Trone and Republican state Del. Neil Parrott face off in the midterms.
The 3rd Congressional District of New York has moved to a lean Democratic rating where Democratic National Committee member Rob Zimmerman will compete with Republican George Santos for the House seat.
Virginia's 7th District now also leans democratic where Rep. Abigail Spanberger and Republican former police officer Yesli Vega are vying for the House seat.
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The updated projections come as voting patterns have been shifting in favor of Democrats since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which eliminated the constitutional right to abortion, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Prior to the June Supreme Court decision, special election results had pointed to a political environment that slightly favored Republicans. But in the five special elections since Roe was overturned, Democrats have outperformed their expected margins by 11 points on average, according to the election tracking website.
