Former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R-N.J.) said during an Axios News Shapers event Wednesday that a part of her hopes "all the crazies do win" during next week's midterm elections so that Americans realize the consequences before the next presidential election.

Driving the news: "But then I realize no, I don't want to live in that world and I don't want to leave it for my grandkids either, the damage they can do."

• Whitman told Axios' Alayna Treene that the Republican Party has become a "cult," and added "there's no set of central principles on which it's based."
• Whitman and former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang founded the Forward Party to give Americans an alternative to the two major parties, she said.
• "It has to be bipartisan, it has to be Republicans, it has to be Democrats, we just want people who are going to work together, who believe in those principles."
• "For us now at Forward, the only two actual positions that we ask people to agree people to is to support open primaries and rank choice voting," she said.

The big picture: Whitman said the GOP retaking Congress would "be a rough two years."

• "It also give us an opening to really let people know what a difference elections make, how important it is to vote and to consider those candidates and understand what they mean for the future and policy making."