Districts and redrew it and became a district of 29. he has resigned and that s as good a democratic pick up already. didn t have that before. how about costello, clinton plus one. they redrew the line and became a ten-point and costello looked at that and said not running in that districts. broke the news on your show. fits patrick got more favorable there. clinton for the democrats. dent, that was a trump plus eight district and now a clinton district. and two other republicans come in to that hit zone already. look, 23 is the number nationally. you could get a quarter of the way there if you re democrats just in pennsylvania, if you get the kind of wave here that they re hoping for. steve kornacki, certainly that s what democrats are looking for. a lot of republicans who wanted costello to try and stick it out
Of republican leaders, mcconnell, and ryan, who is getting out of town at the end of the year, what is it they say that maybe the president isn t looking at? they see this, the history of presidents with low approval ratings and what is happening in midterm election as catastrophe for obama and the democrats in 10. a catastrophe for rush and the republicans in 06. a catastrophe for clinton and the democrats in 94. his number wasn t even that bad. you see that hit zone. that s something republican leaders see. what else do they see? the special elections. where a democratic won a seat, trump had won by 20 where just a couple weeks ago, cut by 16 points. republican leaders see that pattern, they start to get nervous. they see this, which party do you want control congress next year. democrats leading on that that makes republicans nervous as
Midterm strategy. we thought the best way to cover this was with our best guy at his best board. so steve kornacki is at the big board tonight with a look at what that will tell us about what s coming up. hey, steve. hey, brian. yes, republicans are getting nervous. they re nervous about their prospects. they re nervous, they say, about maybe the president doesn t see what they re seeing. we want to take you through what we think is sort of at the heart of this disconnect. so first of all, republicans like paul ryan, like mitch mcconnell, the establish. what is it exactly what they re seeing when they look at the midterms. they re looking at a low approval rating for donald trump. we know this. he s at 42%. he s been around there for a while. that is the hit zone historically for a president in the midterm to lose a lot of seats. trump 42, that mid 40s, high 30s, that has translated into mega losses in the past. the number here, 23. that s all the republicans can