Brit Hume discussed FOX News’ latest polling on the midterm elections, noting Republicans are polling poorly on the economy. Hume also said Democrats’ unpopularity and leftward shift to socialism could keep the races competitive.

BRET BAIER, ANCHOR: It’s almost August, closing in on November. Let’s talk about how the midterm elections are shaping up right now. FOX News Chief Political Analyst Brit Hulme joins us again this evening. Good evening, Brit. You look at our polls, and you look at the condition of the economy, and this is the one for midterms we look at closely. And that is excellent or good, 24%. Only fair or poor, 76%. And that has got to have Republicans, Senate and House, concerned. BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely, Bret. And the truth is, there’s not much good news for Republicans in this whole poll we did. Underwater on the economy, as you showed, underwater on affordability. Those two issues are front and center for sure. Republicans have a little bit of a lead on national security and, I guess, law enforcement. But everywhere you look, Republicans are down. Now, there is a bit of good news. As you mentioned, the redistricting will help them with seats in the House, and they will probably need every one of them they can get from that. And the other thing is, of course, that on the question of intensity of voter sentiment, it appears that Republicans are down. But if you add the people who are very likely to those who are extremely likely to vote, the difference for Democrats is very slight. So Republicans can take some faith and some hope for that. But, you know, with an unpopular incumbent in this particular presidency in its first midterm, the weight of history is pretty strong. And the party in power in the White House has historically, with very few exceptions, done very poorly in the midterm like this one. BAIER: Well, let’s look at the motivation poll you mentioned. Motivated to vote in the midterm elections, extremely, very, not very, and not at all. And Democrats have a lead, but again, to your point, if you add up extremely and very and you have pretty much a tie with Republicans hanging in there, how much do you think that the Democratic Socialist push around the country in some of these primaries, in some of these elections that we’ve seen, affects some of that motivation for Republicans? HUME: Well, I certainly think that’s part of the, one of the ingredients in the general unpopularity of the Democratic Party, which is, I should say, is one of the reasons Republicans have some hope here. The Democrats are really in bad order with the public and they got all these extreme candidates out there and some of whom are, you know, some of whom have won nominations, one of whom got elected, one who got elected mayor of New York City and is a very visible presence. So that’s something that Republicans are sure to hit on, that the Democratic Party has gone so far left it’s off the side of the table and they’ll do with it what they can. But it’s tough in a midterm when people are feeling strongly, as we’ve discussed, about the economy and the cost of living to buck that. And I think that’s, Republicans have a tall order ahead of them. BAIER: Yeah, and independence upside down on the war in Iran and obviously gas prices. But to our point there, favorable opinion of Democratic socialist agenda, socialism. It’s hard to believe that we asked this question, but do you have a favorable opinion of socialism? 52 percent of Democrats do, 11 percent of Republicans do. I don’t know where the 11 percent is from, but capitalism wins out on the Republican side. It’s just interesting to see these numbers and how that potentially affects things. Marc Thiessen yesterday was saying that perhaps he is starting to feel, just like the red wave prediction in 2022, that the blue wave is not going to be as big as perhaps they think it is. HUME: Well, you know, Brent, we may have entered into an era in which these landslides that we used to see, where one party or candidate would win up 58, 59 percent of the vote, win huge presidential election margins. We haven’t had that in quite some time. We may not see it again for some time. And that refusal of the general electorate to really give too much power to either party. I mean, Republicans hold all three branches of the federal government right now, at least the two main ones, Congress and the White House, but they don’t hold it by much. President Trump likes to say he was elected in a landslide. Electoral college landslides are not the same as popular vote landslides, and he didn’t have a popular vote landslide. He had a narrow but convincing win, and these margins in the House and Senate are very narrow for the Republicans. So everything seems, you know, kind of poised on a knife’s edge as we go into this election and into 2028. BAIER: As we always say, polls are a snapshot in time, and we have a lot to go before November. Brent, as always, thank you.

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