McConnell acknowledges GOP faces ‘challenging’ political environment

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday acknowledged that Republicans face a “challenging environment” as they battle to protect their Senate majority.

“We have a lot of exposure, a lot of great members up. We had a really good year in ’14, and so yeah, it’s a challenging environment,” McConnell told reporters.

He said Republicans are in a tough spot because they have to protect 23 Senate seats, compared to just 12 for Democrats.

Among those dozen seats, only Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama is truly endangered. But Republicans think they have a shot at knocking off Sen. Gary Peters (D) of Michigan, a state Trump carried in 2016.

Asked about how Trump’s handling of the pandemic would impact down-ballot races, McConnell reiterated that “it’s a challenging environment.”

“It has been consistently throughout this cycle,” he added. “Just look at the numbers. That’s the only conclusion intelligently to read from it.”

A recent poll by Harvard, Northeastern and Rutgers universities surveyed 22,000 voters across the country and found that all 50 governors had higher approval ratings than Trump when it came to responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

That could make the fall campaign challenging for two Republicans in particular. Sens. Steve Daines (Mont.) and Cory Gardner (Colo.) are running against a sitting and a former Democratic governor, respectively.

In Arizona, former astronaut Mark Kelly, the Democratic Senate candidate, has opened up a sizable lead in the polls over Sen. Martha McSally (R).

Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) are in toss-up races, while a recent poll shows Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) in a much tougher race than expected against Democrat Theresa Greenfield.

Republicans control 53 seats, which means Democrats would need a net pickup of three seats and the White House to win back the Senate majority, which they lost in the 2014 midterm election.