McConnell: GOP can win Senate even if Trump loses
Even if Donald Trump loses to Joe Biden again this fall, Mitch McConnell still sees the odds of a Republican Senate majority in his party’s favor.
During an interview with Terry Meiners on 840 WHAS radio in Louisville Monday afternoon, the longtime Senate GOP leader acknowledged the flaws of both party’s presumptive presidential nominees, but he expressed greater confidence in a series of Senate races that will determine control of the upper chamber.
“Both these candidates don’t score very well with the public, but one of them’s going to win,” McConnell told Meiners referring to President Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
He later added: “We’ve got a good chance, I think, of flipping the Senate, no matter how the presidential race comes out.”
With Democrats currently holding a narrow 51-49 advantage in the Senate, Republicans need to gain just two seats to reclaim the majority.
McConnell said he believes Republicans have already added the seat of retiring West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin to his party’s column, getting the GOP to 50.
He named races in Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland as the next best opportunities for flips. McConnell claimed that none of the 13 incumbent Republicans running in 2024 have a tough race.
“What’s within my level of impact is trying to flip the Senate, and I’d like the person who succeeds me to be the majority leader,” McConnell said.
Seven states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina will determine the presidential outcome in 2024, political experts have said.
“I don’t think either side will be underfunded, let’s put it that way. I think money won’t make the difference,” McConnell said, referring to Trump’s early fundraising deficit to Biden.
But when Meiners probed McConnell for any evidence of contact between himself and the former president -- who he recently endorsed -- the Kentuckian went cold.
“No, I’ve got my hands full dealing with the Senate,” he said.
“You guys don’t talk? Eventually there’s going to have to be a come-to-Jesus moment,” Meiners pressed.
“I’m spending my time on the Senate,” McConnell replied.
“No texts? No nothing,” Meiners continued.
That’s when McConnell looked to redirect the conversation to more comfortable terrain.
“I thought we were going to talk about the new (University of Louisville) basketball coach,” he said.
McConnell formally endorsed Trump for president a month ago, a week after he announced that he would step down from his role as GOP leader following the 2024 election.
But while political aides to McConnell and Trump have had private conversations about the 2024 political environment and strategy, there’s no plan for the two principals to hold a conversation in the near future.