Fox News’s Karl Rove warned that Democrats’ strong candidates for Senate in Iowa and Ohio could win in the two traditionally red states during a conversation with Journal Editorial Report host Paul Gigot over the weekend.

“I want to ask you about a couple of other Senate races, because Iowa seems to be ground zero for the Republican troubles in the Farm Belt this year,” began Gigot. “And I wonder what you think about that race. And then as well, Ohio, where the appointed senator, John Husted, is trailing the former Democratic senator and candidate Sherrod Brown. Do those reflect the president’s troubles in his approval rating and general decline for Republicans here?”

“Yeah, well, let’s take Iowa first. We’ll see some polls here shortly, [Josh] Turek will probably have a bump from having won the primary. The Democrats got the better candidate. His opponent was a state senator from Iowa City, more blue part of the state. He comes from the Des Moines area, where he’s had to win the votes of Republicans and independents to get elected. So they got the better candidate. On the other hand, the Republicans have got a pretty good candidate in Hinton [Ashley Hinson]. She comes from the northeastern part of state, which is historically Democrat, and so she’s had to win the vote of independents and Democrats,” replied Rove. “Interestingly enough, I think that one of the big impacts on the Senate race will be the governor’s contest, where the Republican front runner, endorsed by Trump, Congressman [Randy] Feenstra, lost to an outsider, and the Democrats have put up the only statewide elected Democrat, [Rob] Sand, and he’s a terrific candidate, and that might have an impact in driving up Democratic turnout in the governor’s race and helping their Senate candidate. But as you said, the Cook report moved it from likely Republican to lean Republican. Now we’re going to get serious, we’ll see how well [Hinson] versus Turek goes.”

“But Ohio, Sherrod Brown versus Husted, I mean, the Republican hasn’t won in his own right there as a Senate candidate, and that means he’s not really an incumbent in the minds of many voters,” followed up Gigot, prompting Rove, who replied:

Right. And look, Brown was a terrific candidate for the Democrats. He lost last time around, has been out of office for a couple of years. He’s older. Husted is a popular lieutenant governor in a popular Republican administration. Mike DeWine and Husted have done a terrific job over the last eight years, Husted was sent to the Senate by the governor. This is one poll and I think wee got to see a couple of others before we-, I looked at the internals on this, I think it’s a little bit too Democrat. But nonetheless, yes, the Republicans are in for a battle in Ohio. The Democrats have their best candidate on the field, and Husted is occupied being a senator and being a candidate, and that’s tough to be in this vital state. But I think at the end of the day, Trump won it by 13 points. I don’t believe a Democrat is eight points ahead, meaning a 20-point swing between the last presidential election and today. But it will be a horserace, no doubt about it.

Watch above via Fox News.

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