Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is warning Republicans they may not regain control of the Senate after next year’s election, despite a very favorable map.
McConnell to CNN He’s targeting four Democrat-held seats he thinks the GOP could switch in 2024: Montana, West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
That would give his party control of the Senate – but McConnell was blunt when asked if he was confident they could pull it off.
“No, no — I’m not,” he said, laughing, according to CNN. “I’ve just spent 10 minutes explaining to you how we can screw this up and we’re working very hard not to let that happen. Let’s put it that way.”
Along with those four states, McConnell said Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona could also be in the game but that candidate quality could undermine his party’s ambitions.
McConnell warned of the same problem last summer when some analysts predicted Republicans could retake both the House and Senate.
He said the GOP could take over the House of Representatives in August, but the Senate would be a different story.
“Senate races are just different — they’re statewide,” he said. according to NBC News. “The quality of the candidates has a lot to do with the result.”
Though he didn’t mention Donald Trump at the time, it was perceived as a dig at the former president’s handpicked nominees, many of whom would lose as the GOP narrowly captured the House of Representatives but not the Senate, just as McConnell predicted.
Despite his problems with Trump – and despite accuse Trump for the January 6 attack on the US Capitol – McConnell told CNN he would support it if the former president is the Republican nominee next year.
“Look, I’m going to support our party’s candidate for president, whoever that may be,” he said.