In the fight for the Senate, Mitch McConnell projects confidence: 'This is the best map I've seen in a long time'

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

• Mitch McConnell likes the GOP’s chances this fall as they seek to regain control of the Senate.
• “I think that this is the best map I’ve seen in a long time,” he recently told The Washington Post.
• Democrats and Republicans will be fighting an intense battle amid a likely Biden-Trump rematch.

Barring a major political event, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are likely to face each other this November in a rematch of their 2020 contest. And like the election nearly four years ago, the race is expected to be close.

But further down-ballot, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell likes the GOP’s chances as they aim to wrestle control of the upper chamber from the Democrats, telling The Washington Post that the 2024 cycle features a strong map for Republicans. This year, the party will only have to defend 11 seats.

The GOP hasn’t controlled the Senate since they lost the dual January 2021 Georgia Senate runoff elections, which gave Democrats a significant foothold in the Deep South.

“I think that this is the best map I’ve seen in a long time,” the veteran Kentucky lawmaker told the Post.

It’s almost a given that Republicans will pick up the seat of retiring Sen. Joe Manchin, the moderate West Virginia Democrat, who has long defied the strong GOP politics of his home state.

Republicans are aiming to flip the seats of Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jon Tester of Montana, who both represent conservative-leaning states and have served in the chamber since 2007. And the party is also pushing to win in Arizona, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

But Democrats also feel good about their standing this year even as they work to hold 20 seats — along with the three seats now held by independents who are largely aligned with their party.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer believes that wealthy GOP candidates like Tim Sheehy of Montana and David McCormick of Pennsylvania can be painted as “out-of-touch,” according to the Post.

The New York Democrat said the angst about Biden’s low poll numbers among some party leaders is less of a liability than Trump’s potential return to the White House, the newspaper reported. And Schumer is banking that young voters will still back Biden over Trump in the fall — despite intense opposition to Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

“It is a decent bet that more Republicans do not vote for Trump than Democrats do not vote for Biden,” Schumer told the Post, pointing to a subset of GOP voters who backed George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 but have since drifted away from the party. “They tend to be suburban. They tend to be more affluent. They tend to be college educated.”