Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told an audience in Kentucky on Monday that he expects the outcome of the upcoming midterm elections “to be very, very close either way” in the Senate and that he believes democracy in the United States is on solid ground.
McConnell did not repeat his assertion – which received widespread attention last week – that the House will be easier to flip to Republican control than the Senate. But he said during the event, “flipping the Senate – what are the chances? It’s a 50/50 proposition. We’ve got a 50/50 Senate right now, we’ve got a 50/50 nation and I think the outcome is likely to be very, very close either way.”
Asked later to elaborate, the Kentucky Republican said, “Well, Senate races are statewide. They’re just different in nature from individual congressional districts. Twenty of my members up and only 14 of the Democrats, so that’s to their advantage. Many of these states are purple states and could go either way. I think it’s just going to be a really close race.”
November’s midterm elections – contests where control of each chamber is at stake – are less than 80 days away. Republicans are currently in the minority in both chambers.
House Democrats are widely viewed as facing an uphill battle to retain control of the House, but there is more uncertainty surrounding the fight for the Senate.
Last week, McConnell said, “I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate,” at a Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Florence, Kentucky.
“Senate races are just different. They’re statewide,” he said at the time. “Candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.”
Former President Donald Trump, who has backed many of the Senate candidates causing consternation among some in the GOP, later seized on the comments to attack the Senate minority leader on his Truth Social platform.
“Why do Republicans Senators allow a broken down hack politician, Mitch McConnell, to openly disparage hard working Republican candidates for the United States Senate. This is such an affront to honor and to leadership,” Trump wrote.
The former President and McConnell have long been at odds, with McConnell previously calling out Trump for his role in inciting the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
McConnell said during the event on Monday that the US has “a very solid democracy” as he reflected on the process of an orderly transfer of power in the country and alluded to efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“I do think it’s an important issue. I mean, we saw between the November 3 and January 20 changing of one administration for another, there were those who were trying to prevent the orderly transfer of power for the first time in American history. That was not good. It was thwarted,” he said in response to a question.
McConnell went on to say, though, “look, I think we have a very solid democracy” and “our democracy is solid.”
This story has been updated with additional information.