McConnell: Battle for Senate ‘a 50-50 proposition’

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Wednesday that the battle for the Senate is “50-50” with less than a week before Election Day. 

“It’s a 50-50 proposition. We have a lot of exposure. This is a huge Republican class. … There’s dogfights all over the country,” McConnell said during a campaign stop in Kentucky. 

McConnell has warned for months that he believes Republicans’ face a tough fight to keep their Senate majority as they defend 23 seats on Tuesday compared to 12 for Democrats, including saying in August that it “could go either way.”

But his latest comments come less than a week before Nov. 3, with political handicappers giving Democrats a good shot at winning back the chamber. FiveThirtyEight’s deluxe model gives Democrats a 75 percent chance of winning the Senate, with a 51-49 Democratic majority projected as the most likely outcome.

Democratic senators and officials, however, are bracing for a nail-biting finish as they try to win back the majority for the first since 2014. 

Republicans currently have a 53-47 margin in the Senate. If Democrats win the White House, they would need a net gain of only three seats to control the chamber because the vice president could break a 50-50 tie. They would need a net gain of four seats to have a majority outright.

McConnell, meanwhile, is considered the front-runner in his own race for a seventh term in the Senate.

“I’m confident that I’m going to be successful,” he said Wednesday. “I’ve made my case to the people of Kentucky, I think it’s a convincing case.” 

McConnell added that 2020 is the “most important election,” painting Democrats as embracing a “whole new level of radicalism.” 

“If you look at the Democratic Party today, you ought to be frightened,” McConnell told the crowd. “We’re fighting for our way of life.”