Leaked email shows North Carolina GOP panicking over Pennsylvania upset

The GOP’s failure in the Pennsylvania special election has Republicans across the country quaking over a monumental shift in power come November.

And that includes Republicans in North Carolina, who currently control the state assembly and fear that might not be the case come November.

A fundraising email leaked by conservative North Carolina blogger Brant Clifton shows just how panicked the party is. Matt Bales, political director for the North Carolina Republican House Caucus, warned that if the Pennsylvania result were applied to the state assembly, Democrats would wipe out the Republican majority.

“The outcome is yet another example of the Democratic base being fired up and the Republicans not turning out their voters,” Bales wrote. “The momentum on the Democratic side is real. Our fate will be determined by how hard we work and the effort we put into defending our majority and supermajority in the next six months.”

Bales calculated that after November, the North Carolina General Assembly would have 74 Democrats and 46 Republicans. Republicans currently hold a 75-45 majority.

It could be even worse than Bales realizes. Democrats in North Carolina crunched the same numbers including the state senate, and concluded that 39 seats would flip, giving Democrats majorities in both houses.

“And – like every single district in NC – every single one has a Democratic challenger,” wrote Robert Howard, communications director for the North Carolina Democrats. And according to Howard, the momentum is certainly on Democrats’ side.

“People are sick and tired of Republican efforts to rig the system against our middle class and they’re ready to sweep them out of office this fall at record numbers,” Howard said in a statement to Shareblue Media. “Republicans are merely confirming what Democrats already knew: every race is on the table this year.”

Nationally, 119 Republican House seats are more competitive than the one Trump helped Republicans lose in Pennsylvania. And if the blue wave accomplishes anything close to what North Carolina is predicting at a state level, Democrats will be in great shape to correct the gerrymandering that has helped Republicans maintain their grip on the House.

It’s a fitting irony that by helping to drag Republican congressional candidates down, Trump may be hastening his own political demise at the hands of a Democratically controlled House of Representatives.