Congresswoman Warns Midterms Will Be a ‘F—ing Bloodbath’

Rep. Nancy Mace delivered a stark warning about the upcoming midterm elections as House lawmakers left Washington for an unusually long pre-election recess.

“It’s going to be a bloodbath,” the South Carolina Republican told CNN’s Manu Raju during a Capitol Hill interview on September 16.

Mace made the comment after House Speaker Mike Johnson canceled the chamber’s final scheduled voting day and sent lawmakers back to their districts until after the November 3 elections.

Johnson defended the decision by arguing that House members had finished the work they needed to accomplish before the election.

“The House has done its work,” Johnson told reporters, adding that lawmakers should return home and “make their case to the American people.”

Mace was far less enthusiastic.

Asked whether voters believed Congress had done a good job, she responded, “No, actually not,” before pointing to the chamber’s weak public approval ratings.

The remarks were particularly notable because Mace will not be returning to the House next year. She ran for governor of South Carolina but failed to advance from the Republican primary in June. State election results showed her finishing well behind the leading candidates.

The House’s early departure also came during a period of unusually visible disagreement inside the Republican conference.

Seven Republicans, including Mace, recently broke with most GOP lawmakers during a vote connected to U.S. military involvement in Iran, illustrating divisions within the party over the conflict.

But one of the biggest disputes involved Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth on September 15, accusing the defense secretary of violating congressional war powers and abusing his authority in connection with several military operations.

Massie’s office said three of the articles specifically accuse Hegseth of violating provisions of the War Powers Resolution of 1973 during the Iran conflict. Other allegations concern military operations in Yemen, actions involving Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and the Pentagon’s treatment of administration critics.

The allegations remain allegations. Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson defended Hegseth, calling him a “transformative leader” and saying the department remained united behind him.

Because Massie filed the impeachment effort as a privileged resolution, House rules gave him a mechanism to force relatively quick action by the chamber.

That timetable was interrupted when Johnson canceled Thursday’s votes and began the House recess early. The move pushed any potential action on Massie’s resolution until lawmakers return after Election Day.

Johnson rejected criticism that the schedule change was designed to shield Hegseth, dismissing Massie’s impeachment effort as a political “stunt.” Massie, meanwhile, accused leadership of leaving town to avoid putting lawmakers on the record.

The unusual schedule leaves House members away from Washington for more than six weeks during the final stretch of campaigning. GOP leaders had already scrapped two additional weeks of September voting before canceling the final scheduled day.

Both parties have major stakes in the November elections.

Republicans currently hold only a narrow House majority. Recent reporting puts the chamber at 219 Republicans and 214 Democrats, meaning Democrats need a small net gain to take control. In the Senate, Republicans hold a 53-47 advantage, and Democrats would need a net gain of four seats while protecting their own seats to secure a majority.

History also explains why Republicans are paying close attention to the political environment.

During President Donald Trump’s first midterm election in 2018, Democrats won 235 House seats and gained 41 seats compared with the previous Congress, taking control of the chamber. Republicans nevertheless expanded their Senate majority that year.

Four years later, during President Joe Biden’s first midterm, Republicans captured the House with 222 seats to the Democrats’ 213. Official House historical records list that election as a nine-seat Democratic loss in the chamber.

Mace’s warning does not establish what will happen in November, but it highlights the anxiety some Republicans are expressing as a closely divided Congress heads into its final weeks of campaigning.

For now, lawmakers are expected back in Washington after Election Day, when the House could immediately face a backlog that includes the Hegseth impeachment effort, government funding questions and other legislation postponed during the lengthy recess.