Former Obama White House chief of staff and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said Monday that Democrats are positioned for a wave election in 2026, drawing parallels to 2006, when he chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the party flipped both chambers of Congress during the Iraq War.
“When one party controls both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, there’s a law of physics that kicks in,” Emanuel said at a Politics and Eggs breakfast at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics.
Emanuel cited four previous wave election years—1994, 2006, 2010, and 2018—as evidence of a recurring pattern when one party holds both the White House and Congress. He said three conditions that preceded Democratic gains in 2006 are present today: a wartime president, an unpopular Congress, and surging Democratic energy in off-cycle races….
Former Obama Chief of Staff: Democrats Poised for 2006-Style Wave in 2026
