National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Steve Daines, R-Mont., said Thursday that the goal for Republicans come November is to flip two Senate seats.
Despite their most favorable map in a decade, the Senate Republican campaign chief is trying to temper expectations rather than over-promise. Flipping two seats gets the job done, Daines said Thursday at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
"Fifty-one," Daines replied, when asked how many seats the GOP will have in the upper chamber in January. "Because that gives us the majority."
Daines is trying to avoid the pitfalls of his predecessor, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who predicted a red wave in 2022, with Republicans coming away with up to 55 seats, he said then. Republicans are sitting on 49 instead.
"I will let you all go through and analyze the races and decide on what number you want to put on it. ... All I know is what matters the most is the majority. Fifty-one is what we're focused on," Daines said.
That puts Daines in lockstep with outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who said nearly the exact same thing in an interview published Thursday morning.
"It's important to not get too excited, because it's noteworthy that in the last cycle, not a single incumbent lost. So what's the message? Candidate quality," McConnell told Politico. "It's important to continue to say you want 51. There's nothing wrong with getting more, but 51 gives you control."
According to the Christian Science Monitor, Republicans have one guaranteed flip in West Virginia, where longtime Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin is retiring. In Maryland, Democrats don't yet have a nominee — the primary is May 14 — to take on former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.
Democrats have to defend states won by Donald Trump in 2020 — Ohio and Montana — with open seats in Arizona and Michigan.
All well and good, Daines said, but Republicans just need two.
"A lot of these races are on the margins. They're razor-thin races. It's going to be a night that things could go either way in many of these states. But 51 is our goal, and you will not hear me, from now until Nov. 5, say anything other than 51."
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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