Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky (Ill.) said Monday that she believes Democrats can win the 25 seats they need to retake the House of Representatives in 2018.
Schakowsky's comments on CNN came days after the Democratic Party lost its fourth straight special congressional election, with Jon Ossoff losing to Republican Karen Handel in last Tuesday's House race in Georgia's sixth district.
CNN host Poppy Harlow asked Schakowsky about the loss in Georgia, as well as others in Montana, Kansas, and South Carolina. Schakowsky dismissed the losses, arguing they are not indicative of Democrats' electoral chances in 2018.
"The reason that those Republicans were appointed to the [Trump] administration is because they were considered safe Republican districts. The Ossoff district, the sixth district in Georgia, is the 71st most likely district that Democrats can win," she said. "In other words, there are 70 districts that will be easier than that."
Schakowsky was referring to the fact that the Georgia race and special elections in other states were replacing seats vacated by lawmakers who were nominated to serve in President Donald Trump's administration.
Schakowsky talked up Democrats' gains over the 2016 race in the same contested districts, while conceding that they should have "depressed the expectations."
"Maybe we should have depressed the expectations a bit more than they were. But this was a very, very hard district, and we improved the performance by double digits in order to do better," she said.
"If we do that well around the country, we will easily win the 25 seats that we need," Schakowsky said. "And we are prepared to go out and do that."