House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) admitted there's a "1 in 3" chance that the Republicans will lose their majority in the House of Representatives in an interview Tuesday on Fox News' "America’s Newsroom."
"I would say that there is a 2 in 3 chance that we win control of the House again. But there’s a 1 in 3 chance that we could lose. And I’m being myself, frank, we’ve got a big challenge and we’ve got work to do," he said to Fox News' Bill Hemmer.
Expanding on tough races, Boehner said, "We have 50 of our members in tough races; 89 freshmen running for their first re-elections. And we have 32 districts that are in states where there is no presidential campaign going to be run, no big Senate race and we call these orphan districts."
He went on, "You take 18 of them -- California, Illinois and New York, where you know we’re not likely to do well at the top of the ticket -- and those districts are frankly pretty vulnerable."
Boehner also dismissed top Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod's comment on Sunday that House Republicans are under a "reign of terror" brought about by the far right of their party. "That that is just outrageous talk," Boehner said. "They’re trying to make this election, as I said earlier, about anything other than the president’s failed economic policies. And so they’re going to look for every boogeyman known to man," he said.
"Listen, if Republicans were walking in lockstep, my job would be a whole lot easier," he added.