“Tonight, you’ll be sleeping with the heavyweight champion of the world,” Chuck Wepner told his wife.
Then he left his hotel room to fight Muhammad Ali. The date was March 24, 1975.
It’s now Election Day 2026, and somehow, Chuck Wepner is still standing. George Foreman, Sonny Liston, and Muhammad Ali are all dead and buried, but Wepner is still alive at 87.
Foreman, Liston, and Ali: Wepner fought ‘em all.
And he lost to ‘em all, too. (Failed to go the distance each time.)
That's because he was slow and plodding. He had the heart of a lion; unfortunately, it was trapped inside the body of an arthritic sloth. And that’s how he’d end up losing: Eventually, his opponent’s speed and skills would overwhelm his chin.
Heart and bravado can only carry you so far.
And deep down, I suspect Wepner knew he was going to lose that night. His brashness was a cover: There was absolutely no way in hell he’d beat Muhammad Ali!
I also suspect his wife knew it, too, because when Wepner staggered back to his hotel room — bloodied, bruised, and battered after getting knocked out in the 15th round — his wife asked, “Am I going to Ali’s room, or is he coming to mine?”
According to the mainstream media, the 2026 midterms is the Chuck Wepner Election: The results are a foregone conclusion. Democrats are going to dominate, and Republicans are going down for the count.
The Democrats are Muhammad Ali: statistically superior, with far better measurables and testing numbers. The New York Times says they’re leading in every single battleground state — and in most of them, it’s not even close.
Far-left Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is up by double digits! James Talarico is up by nine!
And the Republicans are Chuck Wepner: Theoretically, they still have a puncher’s chance, but c’mon — Election Day 2026 is a terrible mismatch, and everyone knows it. Between the historic midterm headwinds, President Donald Trump’s low poll numbers, and gas prices, the outcome is guaranteed.
The only question is, can Wepner/Republicans stay on their feet long enough to at least make it interesting?
The real Wepner did. He was even credited with knocking down Ali in the ninth round — a moment that inspired an actor/screenwriter named Sylvester Stallone to create a character named Rocky Balboa.
And maybe the Republicans can rally, too. Maybe we’ll score a face-saving victory somewhere in Texas, Michigan, or Minnesota. Yes, the House is history, and the Senate is slipping away, but maybe we can still blood-and-guts our way to the final round.
We’ll still lose, of course, but at least we’ll lose with style. It’s all we can really hope for: a dignified defeat.
That’s the PR power of pro-Democratic polls: They justify the media’s GOP-bashing and Democratic cheerleading. It’s become a giant fig leaf for media bias — and Lord knows it can be VERY persuasive.
By making the blue tsunami appear to be a slam-dunk certainty, the media depresses Republican turnout, excites and energizes liberal voters, and it can even — when the stars align — become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
But only if enough Republican voters fall for the façade! (Hint, hint: Get out and vote.)
All analogies have limitations. And despite the endless drumbeat of absurdly over-the-top pro-Democratic polling stats, one number sticks out like a sore thumb.
It’s the single biggest reason for Republican optimism, and it comes courtesy of the New York Times.
One of the things that makes this number so eye-popping is that The Times’ bias speaks for itself: The Gray Lady is STILL the heavyweight champion of left-wing journalism and liberal cheerleading. Despite its pious claims of impartiality, The Times has endorsed the Democratic nominee in 17 straight presidential elections!
This seems statistically dubious for a truly “impartial” news organization: The odds of flipping a coin 17 times in a row and only getting heads are 0.0007629%.
Perhaps it’s coincidental, but I’m guessing it’s causal: The Times’ polling has consistently exaggerated Democratic numbers and underestimated Republican support. It happened in 2020, it happened in 2024, and it’s almost certainly happening today.
Why, you’d almost get the impression that The Times’ top priority is perpetuating a pro-liberal worldview!
Yet within a vehicle that’s designed to justify a pro-Democratic narrative, a weirdly pro-Republican statistic has emerged. And if it turns out that all the polls are wrong — once again — this will be the reason why.
According to The Times’ own poll, U.S. voters who decided in the last month broke Republican by a whopping nine-point margin.
And if The Times is underselling Republican numbers yet again, it could be much, much more. In fact, it could easily be a double-digit GOP advantage!
Because the Democrats never were Muhammad Ali and the Republicans never were Chuck Wepner. Nor is a Democratic victory inevitable.
Related: Haley Stevens’ Bombshell Endorsement: What Does She Know That the Polls Don’t?
American elections are still a binary choice — donkeys versus elephants — and just 29% of voters have a positive view of the Democrats. (For Republicans, it’s 38%.)
The Democrats might have the wind at their backs, but this isn’t a mismatch. It’s a battle between two fighters with comparable strengths and weaknesses.
Instead of the Chuck Wepner Election, it’s the fury versus fear election: If more voters are furious at Trump than fearful of the Democrats, the donkeys will win.
And vice versa.
Of course, the Dems have been furious at Trump since 2015. It’s nothing new. The Dems have had the 2026 midterm date pinned to their calendar since Election Day 2024.
They’re mad as hell and out for blood!
Anger is an aggressive emotion. It puts you in attack-first mode. And from June through September, the Democrats were 100% on offense.
They got so aggressive, they nominated a slew of fringe left-wing bomb-throwers, like Abdul El-Sayed, James Talarico, Angie Nixon, and Graham Platner. They openly discussed plans to pack the Supreme Court and prosecute young Trump supporters. They embraced the DSA, Islamic Socialism, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Which scared the bejesus out of Republicans, moderates, and undecideds.
The Democrats are like the fighter who peaked too early. They went for the knockout in the early rounds, failed, and now they’ve punched themselves out. We’re in November — the championship rounds — and they’re gasping for breath.
Once again, they’re fading down the stretch.
Because, unlike Wepner, the Republicans are still getting stronger. We’re dancing, jabbing, and peeling away voters. Even in The Times’ so-called “unbiased” polling, we’re utterly obliterating the Dems with late-deciding voters.
A nine-point pro-Republican advantage in a New York Times poll (!) is nothing to sneeze at. (And it’s certainly not what we’d expect to see in a blue wave election against an unpopular president.)
Of course, there’s a risk that Republicans are peaking too late. Yeah, we poured it on in the final month, but alas, we also had a lot of ground to cover. A strong finish doesn’t always make up for a slow start.
It reminds me of a quote from another legendary prizefighter — one who actually sparred with Rocky Balboa in the movie — the incomparable Hands of Stone, Roberto Duran: “I never lost a fight; I just ran out of time.”
And maybe the Republicans will run out of time, too. We’ll find out soon enough.
Still, the eye-popping disparity in late-deciders and a GOP advantage so pronounced that even The Times had to acknowledge it reveal something worth remembering:
The closer we got to Election Day — and the more that voters learned about the candidates, issues, choices, and beliefs — the better Republicans performed.
This should inform our strategy going forward. (Plus, y’know, maybe we shouldn’t take so many early rounds off.)
Our problem isn’t the message; it’s the timing.
But we’ll deal with that tomorrow. Because today is Election Day — and this is still a close, competitive fight. So get in the ring and make your vote count. And keep firing punches ‘til the final bell.
‘Cause who knows? Upsets happen all the time. The world title is within reach — and it’s there for the taking. We just need to finish the damn fight.
If we do, the title is ours. We’ll take it home and celebrate.
And this time, Mrs. Wepner won’t have to leave her hotel room.