McConnell Says GOP is Facing a Storm in Midterm Elections

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that the November midterm elections will be “very challenging” for Republicans, adding that the GOP is facing a “storm” as it tries to hold on to the Senate.

McConnell said Republicans know the “wind is going to be in our face” with several make-or-break races with tight polling, NBC News reported.

“You can’t repeal history, and almost every election two years into any new administration the party of the presidency loses seats. They don’t always lose the body, but almost always loses seats. And so we know that this is going to be a very challenging election on the Senate side,” McConnell told reporters when asked about his party’s chances of keeping the upper chamber.

Republicans started the cycle facing a favorable map that could potentially allow them to increase their narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate. Democrats are playing defense to keep 10 seats in states President Donald Trump won in the 2016 election.

But with eight weeks to go until the November elections, Democrats have a narrow path to retaking the Senate if the party can sweep every race considered a toss-up.

McConnell ticked off a number of states where he believes the races are currently “dead even”: Arizona, Nevada, Tennessee, Montana, North Dakota, Missouri, Indiana, West Virginia, and Florida.

“All of them too close to call and every one of them like a knife fight in an alley. Just a brawl. In every one of those places. I hope when the smoke clears we’ll still have a majority in the Senate,” McConnell told reporters.

Three of those seats, Arizona, Nevada, and Tennessee, are currently held by Republican senators. But GOP Senators Jeff Flake and Bob Corker are retiring after this year, and Senator Dean Heller is considered the most vulnerable Republican incumbent as he runs in a state won by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The Senate Leadership Fund, a GOP outside group with close ties to McConnell, announced earlier Tuesday that it was putting up new ads targeting Democratic Senators Claire McCaskill and Heidi Heitkamp, as well as Representative Jacky Rosen and Phil Bredesen, the Democratic Senate candidates in Nevada and Tennessee, respectively.