Newt Gingrich, 'Fox & Friends' hosts on red wave failing to materialize: 'I was shocked'

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich joined "Fox & Friends" Wednesday to analyze why a "red wave" failed to materialize in the midterm elections. 

"I was surprised," Gingrich told host Steve Doocy. "Because I thought with the inflation rate and the price of food and the price of gasoline, with the crime rate that we have seen, with the border as open as it is with some 4 million plus people coming across illegally - I thought all those things would have made for a very big Republican night."

Gingrich emphasized the GOP's success in state-level elections despite the smaller margin of victory in Congress. Republicans appear poised to take control of the House but by a smaller margin than expected, while key Senate races remain too close to call.  

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"But you look at the scale of the Republican governor victories. That's something," Gingrich said. "We did very well with governors. And in that sense, it was a huge night for Republican government at the state level."

Specifically, Gingrich praised Gov. Ron DeSantis who secured another term as governor of the Sunshine State in a decisive victory over Democrat Charlie Crist. 

DeSantis made historic moves in his victory flipping the historically blue Miami-Dade County. As of Wednesday morning, DeSantis had a winning margin of around 1.4 million votes with 59.38% of the vote compared to Crist's 39.96%.

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"Republicans have never had the kind of margin in Dade County that both Rubio and DeSantis got. I think DeSantis is the biggest single winner of the night, and that's going to resonate across the whole country," Gingrich said. 

"It is now a ruby red state," said host Ainsley Earhardt earlier on the show. 

"DeSantis is welcoming anyone who wants to escape their liberal states. Conservatism just works there."

In addition to DeSantis' victory, Sen. Marco Rubio also defeated Democrat candidate Val Demings whom many pundits feared could give the incumbent a run for his money. 

"Another one who had a convincing victory despite the zillions of dollars spent against him, was Marco Rubio. He was really strong," host Brian Kilmeade said, adding he was "shocked that there was no red wave."

"But how do you explain this country now?" Earhardt asked. "We have open borders, record gas prices. Inflation is the worst in four years. The president's approval ratings are so bad. Worst crime since the 1980s. And yet I heard last night this is an indictment on the Republican Party.

"When our country is in such a bad state right now, how is this not a red wave?"

Gingrich argued that Democrats' "threat to democracy" language and emphasis on GOP candidates' election denial may have proven more effective than expected.

"As much as I think it's despicable that the Biden strategy of demonizing Republicans and attacking Republicans and defaming Republicans, I think did have an impact and will probably become part of the definition of the Democratic Party," he added. 

Steve Doocy added that the issue of abortion was also a major motivator for Democrat supporters, ranking as the number two issue in a CNN exit poll.

"They said that 27% of the voters in House races said that abortion was their number one issue, second only to inflation. And of those who cited abortion as their most important issue, 76% voted for the Democrat. Also, abortion voters sided with Democrats in favor of abortion rights in Michigan, California and Vermont," Doocy said.

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"So while we've been talking a lot about inflation and it certainly does impact people, it seems like abortion was a gigantic motivator for Democrats."

Fox News' Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.