This week at The National Press Club when asked if Democrats can retake the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2018 midterms, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) said that the Democratic Party was “1,000 seats” behind the Republican Party at this point.

As a former DCCC chairman, Emanuel is credited for playing a key role in the Democratic Party regaining the majority in the House of Representatives in the 2006 election.

Emanuel said, “Sure it can happen anybody that tells you it will happen this far out doesn’t hasn’t been in campaigns, it’s too far to predict, a lot of things happen. I’d rather be a Democrat today going into 2018 than a Republican. And you didn’t pay me to say that, OK? Every time the House of Representatives has filled, it’s been a midterm election That is a fact. No party has gone into a midterm with a president this unpopular at this point. Without a severe consequence to that party’s position in the House.”

He continued, “As somebody who has spent my life building the party, we are 1,000 seats shorter today than we were in 2009 or 2008. This is not about one election. It’s about building a party.”

He added, “It’s about making sure we win state House seats in North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and New Mexico.”

(h/t NTK)

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN