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April 7, 2026 11:03-11:06 - CSPAN
02:59
Washington Journal Chuck Rocha

Chuck Rocha, founder of Solidarity Strategies, analyzes Democrats' blue wave hopes for the November midterms, noting their 30 state legislative gains since 2024 contrast with zero federal Republican pickups. He explains that off-year elections rely on consistent bases rather than Trump's 2024 non-regular voter mobilization, highlighting historical trends where power-holders lose seats except during wars. Citing Pew Research data showing 75% frustration with Democrats and 64% with Republicans, Rocha argues high GOP dissatisfaction is expected given their control of the presidency, House, and Senate, suggesting deep partisan fatigue defines the upcoming election landscape. [Automatically generated summary]

Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo Source
Participants
Appearances
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chuck rocha
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mimi geerges
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Speaker Time Text
Historical Midterm Patterns 00:02:59
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C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered.
mimi geerges
Washington Journal, joined now by Chuck Rocha.
He is founder of Solidarity Strategies to talk about Democrats in the midterms.
Chuck, welcome to the program.
unidentified
Good to be here.
mimi geerges
All right, so let's talk about the midterms.
Democrats are hoping for a blue wave in November.
They've picked up 30 seats since 2024 in state legislatures.
It's important to note that's not federal.
Republicans have not picked up any.
Talk about that.
chuck rocha
So that shows a momentum of dissatisfaction that we see across the country.
But a special election is a different than an off-year election, but it's also good for your listeners to know that an off-year election is much different than a presidential election.
What do I mean by that?
In a presidential election, which we went through in 2024, there was a giant turnout.
Donald Trump, and I give Donald Trump a lot of credit, he got a lot of people to show up who weren't regular voters.
In an off-year election, which we're heading into, normally about 35 to 40% of the folks who participate in a presidential election do not come back.
So it's the base of both parties and the most active people.
And it's more about turnout than it is persuasion.
And you kind of know who they are from year to year.
And what you've described in the state rep races are special elections that have just happened because somebody retired, they gave up, something happened.
And then you have even more of the base of the base show up in a special election.
And so what you see there is more of a motivation right now by Democrats, which is a great sign for us headed into the midterm along with history.
History that we're fighting right now is normally the party that comes into power.
The other party normally picks up seats.
And that's went on throughout history.
It's only been twice in the history of our great nation where that didn't happen.
So Republicans not only are...
mimi geerges
But one time was during a war, right?
chuck rocha
Absolutely.
Yeah, one time was during a war.
mimi geerges
You mentioned that people are frustrated with Republicans.
I want to show you two numbers.
And this is a poll by Pew on American frustration with political parties.
Those frustrated by Democrats are at 75%.
Frustrated by Republicans, 64%.
Still high, but not as high as that top number.
chuck rocha
Republicans control everything in Washington, D.C.
They control the presidency, the House, and the Senate.
So it's easy to make them the FOIA because they're in charge of everything.
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