Democrats keep telling anyone who’ll listen that a blue wave is about to wash President Trump’s majorities out to sea.

The latest polls have cable anchors sounding like they already know the ending.

And one Fox News guest spotted the hole in that story nobody else wants to talk about.

A McConnell Veteran Noticed What’s Missing From the Democrat Wave

Bret Baier brought Josh Holmes onto his Fox News show in the final stretch before the November 3 midterms. Holmes co-hosts the Ruthless podcast and spent years as chief of staff and campaign manager for US Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), so he knows what a losing year looks like from the inside.

He didn’t sugarcoat the Republican side of the ledger. Then he pointed at something the rest of the political press keeps skipping right past.

“I will just say one distinction that I have seen in this election as compared to wave elections on both sides is that the party out of power really hasn’t made the sale,” Holmes said.

“Yes, Republicans are unpopular in many of these places. Democrats are no more popular than they are,” he added.

Holmes said “a whole confluence of reasons” explains it. But the bottom line, in his telling, is that Democrat weakness “does balance or at least mitigate what is a challenging electorate.”

Baier took it one step further. “So the question is, you can talk about costs being high, but what are you going to do about it?” he asked.

Holmes answered with a question of his own. “And if you are coming off the Biden economy and introduced to inflation, are these guys really the answer to that question?”

Every Real Wave Came With a Sales Pitch

Holmes’ point lands harder once anybody looks back at the waves that actually rolled.

In September 1994, then-House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-GA) gathered more than 300 Republican candidates on the Capitol steps to sign the Contract with America. It spelled out ten bills Republicans promised to bring to a vote, from welfare reform to a balanced budget amendment. Voters knew exactly what they were buying. Republicans picked up 54 House seats and took the chamber for the first time in four decades.

Republicans ran the same play in 2010. House GOP leaders rolled out their Pledge to America at a lumber company in Northern Virginia, built around spending cuts and repealing Obamacare. That fall, voters handed them 63 seats.

And the playbook works on the other side of the aisle too. Democrats ran on their “Six for ‘06” agenda in 2006 and hammered health care in 2018. Agree with them or not, they put a product on the shelf, and voters bought it.

Ask a Democrat candidate in 2026 to name the party’s version of the Contract with America and see how long the silence lasts.

What Democrats Are Actually Selling

The polls do show a rough environment for the GOP. An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos survey of likely voters had Democrats ahead 52 percent to 44 percent on the congressional ballot, and an NPR survey found a similar gap.

But dig one layer deeper and Holmes’ warning shows up right in the numbers. That same ABC/Post/Ipsos poll found the Democrat Party underwater, with 54 percent of Americans viewing it unfavorably. The Decision Desk HQ polling average put unfavorable views of Democrats above 52 percent.

That’s a party leading on the ballot while most of the country still doesn’t like it. Voters are mad at Washington. Nobody has fallen in love with the alternative.

Back in July 2025, CNN’s polling had Democrat favorability at 28 percent, the lowest number in the network’s records going back to 1992. The party has climbed some since, mostly by pointing at Republicans rather than by pitching anything new.

And the one idea gaining real steam inside the Democrat tent should worry every family that lived through the last round of runaway prices. The ABC/Post/Ipsos poll found 70 percent of Democrats now view democratic socialism favorably.

So the closest thing Democrats have to a sales pitch is a message about being a “check” on President Trump, wrapped around a base that increasingly wants government running more of the economy. Every country that tried that recipe ended up with empty shelves and higher taxes, and Americans who remember the Carter years don’t need a history lecture on what happens when Washington tries to plan its way out of inflation.

It’s a little like a used car salesman who spends the whole visit trashing the dealership across the street and never once pops the hood on his own car. Eventually the customer asks to see the engine.

Baier’s Question Is the One Democrats Keep Ducking

Baier’s “what are you going to do about it?” might be the most important question of the whole cycle.

Democrats want credit for noticing that groceries, gas, and rent cost too much. But the price spike that started the whole mess hit under Joe Biden, with a Democrat Congress spending trillions on top of it. Holmes knows that history, and so do the voters he was describing.

Maybe the polls are right and the anger alone carries Democrats across the finish line. Waves sometimes run on resentment more than ideas, and Holmes himself called the electorate challenging.

But a majority won on anger with no agenda attached doesn’t stay empty for long. Something fills the space.

Democrats spent 2018 insisting they had no plans to impeach President Trump. Then they took the House and impeached him over Ukraine, and later again over January 6, in proceedings that played out as partisan exercises from start to finish. A party with no plan for prices tends to find plenty of time for subpoenas.

That’s the part of Holmes’ observation that should stick with voters after the cable segment ends. A party that never made the sale on the economy still has a shopping list. It just isn’t printed anywhere voters can read it.

The Pitch Democrats Still Haven’t Made

Gingrich printed his promises in TV Guide so voters could hold Republicans to them. Democrats in 2026 have offered nothing anyone could clip out and stick on the refrigerator.

So if Democrats do win a majority without ever making the sale, what exactly will they claim the voters bought?

Sources: RealClearPolitics, “Josh Holmes: Yes, Republicans Are Unpopular, But Unlike In Other Wave Elections, Democrats Haven’t Made The Sale”; ABC News, “Democrats lead Republicans in House vote choice as Trump’s approval rating hits record low: ABC/Post/Ipsos poll”; NPR, “Poll: Voters want Congress to be a check on Trump, trust Democrats more on issues”; Decision Desk HQ, Democratic Party favorability polling average; The Hill, “Favorable views of Democratic Party lowest in decades: Polling”; CNN, “CNN Poll: Democratic Party’s favorability drops to a record low”; Fox News, Josh Holmes profile; US House of Representatives History, Art and Archives, Contract with America; Library of Congress, Pledge to America.