Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel on Sunday disputed the suggestion that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation will help GOP candidates in Senate races and hurt House candidates in swing districts.
“It’s helping across the board in House and Senate races,” McDaniel said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“I’m looking at every race across the country,” she added. “Our job is to turn out our base. Our base is completely energized right now, and the Kavanaugh hearing has just highlighted how important this election is for them.”
{mosads}Host Chris Wallace noted that a recent Quinnipiac Poll that asked voters whom they’d support in their congressional district showed Republicans trailing Democrats by 18 points among women, and 7 points overall.
McDaniel refuted the notion that Kavanaugh’s confirmation will hurt Republicans with women voters after he was put on the Supreme Court despite being accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct.
“Republicans sided with due process and the rule of law and the presumption of innocence,” she said. “It had nothing to do with male vs female.”
The Senate confirmed Kavanaugh on Saturday afternoon in a 50-48 vote, with one GOP senator absent and another voting “present.” Every Democrat opposed Kavanaugh’s nomination except for Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).
The bitter fight over Kavanaugh’s confirmation came after multiple women accused the judge of sexual misconduct. Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford testified late last month over allegations that he sexually assaulted her during a party in the 1980s.
A supplemental FBI background investigation found no corroboration of the claims, Republicans said, while Democrats argued that the review of the allegations was too brief and failed to interview key witnesses.
The confirmation comes roughly a month before the midterm elections, where Republicans are hoping to keep or build on their narrow majority in the Senate, and stave off a Democratic effort to retake control of the House. Democrats need to pick up 23 seats to do so.
A RealClearPolitics average of generic congressional ballot polling shows Democrats with a 6.6 percentage point lead with roughly a month left until Election Day.