DEMOCRACY 2022: Voters head to the polls with congressional balance of power on

President Biden predicts that Democrats will “surprise the living devil out of a lot of people” in Tuesday’s midterm elections, when roughly a third of the Senate, all 435-members of the House of Representatives, and governors’ offices in 36 of the 50 states are up for grabs.

But with Democrats facing historical headwinds — the party that wins the White House traditionally suffers major setbacks in the ensuing midterm elections — and a very rough political climate fueled by record inflation, soaring crime and a crisis at the nation’s southern border, all accentuated by his own rebounding but still underwater approval ratings, the president’s election eve forecast appears optimistic.

Republicans are aiming to regain majorities in both the House of Representatives and Senate in Tuesday’s contests, while maintaining and potentially increasing their current control of a majority of governorships and state legislative chambers.

“We’re going to make some history,” Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told Fox News in a recent interview, as he reiterated his conviction that the GOP would win back the House majority it lost in the 2018 midterms.

MIDTERM ELECTIONS 2022: LIVE UPDATES

Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, teams up with GOP congressional nominee Monica De La Cruz of Texas, at her campaign headquarters in McAllen, Texas, on Oct. 18, 2022
(NRCC )

While Republicans lost control of the White House and the Senate majority in the 2020 cycle, they over performed in House races and took a big bite out of the Democrats’ majority. The GOP needs a net gain of just five sets in the 435-member chamber in the midterms to reclaim control.

Pointing to the economy and crime, two top issues Republicans have hammered Democrats over this cycle, Emmer described the midterms as a “security election.” 

“America’s economic security is in a terrible place because they have to choose between buying groceries for their family or putting gas in the gas tank. And they’re watching their retirement accounts evaporate in front of their eyes and then it’s the physical security, the crime,” Emmer said.

SENATE GOP CAMAPIGN CHAIR FORECASTS ‘52-PLUS’ SEATS 

Emmer’s counterpart in the Senate, National Republican Senatorial Committee chair Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, also forecasts that the GOP will retake the Senate majority with “52-plus” seats.

The Senate is currently split 50-50 between the two major political parties, but the Democrats control the majority thanks to the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris through her Constitutional role as president of the Senate. That means Republicans need a net gain of just one seat in the midterms to win back the majority they lost when they were swept by the Democrats in Georgia’s twin Jan. 5, 2021, Senate runoff elections.

Republicans are defending 21 of the 35 Senate seats in contention, including five open seats where GOP senators are retiring rather than running for re-election. Two of those open seats are in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and North Carolina…