McConnell: ‘Ticket-splitting’ will preserve GOP Senate majority

Cameron Lancaster

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says Donald Trump’s nomination won’t doom GOP efforts to hold the Senate because “ticket-splitting” voters will cast ballots for the party’s popular incumbents.

{mosads}Appearing Tuesday night on Fox News Channel’s “The Kelly File,” McConnell was asked by anchor Megyn Kelly if he was worried that Trump might sink the party’s chances of preserving its slim majority in the upper chamber.

“Regardless of what happens at the top of the ticket, you have two nominees here who we know for sure are very unpopular,” McConnell said. “So I think neither one of them can count on the kind Barack Obama-2008 landslide in which your party sweeps the House and Senate and everybody says, ‘Not only are we going to elect you president, we want you to do anything you want to.’”

Kelly asked McConnell if he believed either Trump or likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would be sent to the White House with a “mandate” to govern.

“No, I don’t think so,” McConnell said. “This is going to be a ticket-splitting kind of year. We do have a lot of exposure. We have 24 members up and only 10 Democrats, but they’re very popular incumbents.”

McConnell pointed to Sens. Rob Portman (Ohio), Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) as the examples of strong Republican incumbents up for reelection.

All three face tough reelection fights in presidential swing states states, as do Republican Sens. Ron Johnson (Wis.), Mark Kirk (Ill.) and Richard Burr (N.C.).

Tags Barack Obama Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Kelly Ayotte Mark Kirk Mitch McConnell Richard Burr Rob Portman Ron Johnson

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