'The worst of Joe Biden will be over': McConnell pitches voters on GOP Senate
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McConnell said the majority runs through eight states: Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and New Hampshire (which feature vulnerable Democratic incumbents), as well as Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania (four states where the incumbent Republican is retiring). As long as the party nominates quality candidates in those states and avoids the likes of Todd Akin, Sharron Angle, Richard Mourdock, and Christine O’Donnell (from the 2010 and 2012 cycles), the minority leader expects to run the table and is bullish on winning the majority.
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Angle and O’Donnell lost winnable Senate races in Nevada and Delaware, respectively, in 2010, a Republican wave year. Akin and Mourdock similarly tanked winnable races in Missouri and Indiana two years later. Only in 2014, another GOP wave year, when a fed-up McConnell began intervening in primaries to weed out bad candidates, did Republicans finally recapture the Senate majority they had lost eight years earlier.
The minority leader is prepared to do the same thing this year, particularly in Missouri, where disgraced former Gov. Eric Greitens is a leading contender in the GOP primary. The National Republican Senatorial Committee is neutral in primaries, a directive of Florida Sen. Rick Scott, the chairman. But the super PAC aligned with McConnell, the Senate Leadership Fund, is poised to fill that gap — and utilize the massive war chest at its disposal against Greitens if polling suggests intervention is necessary.
So far, McConnell is keeping his powder dry. “Let’s put it this way,” he said. “If I were inclined to intervene, I certainly wouldn’t announce it.” Greitens has pledged to vote against McConnell for Republican leader if he is elected to the Senate this fall. Meanwhile, in just about every targeted state other than Missouri, McConnell sees virtually zero reason for concern.
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