Mitch McConnell is the worst Republican leader in Congress.
He’s too busy trying to retain control of his own party than he is defeating the Democrats in November.
And now, McConnell just stabbed this Republican Senate candidate in the back with one move.
In the U.S. Senate, the magic number is 51, but for Mitch McConnell, it’s 26.
That’s because 51 senators are needed for any political party to take control of the chamber, but 26 senators are needed to retain a leader’s position within their party.
And for Mitch McConnell, he would rather than 26 loyal Republicans who continue to keep him in office as Senate Republican Leader than he does defeating Democrats and securing at least 51 GOP seats in the Senate.
That’s because there’s no guarantee that any new Republican senators would vote to keep McConnell as their party’s leader.
And McConnell knows this, that’s why he has been working to sabotage several GOP senate nominees in critical tossup states, because they have publicly come out against letting him remain as the party’s Senate leader.
The Federalist reports, “Arizona Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters is getting more help from independent, outside conservative groups after GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell abandoned the ripe opportunity for a pivotal pick-up to reclaim the majority.”
“The six-figure ad buy in the Phoenix media market highlights Sen. Mark Kelly’s role in a 50-50 chamber voting to introduce “shattering inflation” from runaway spending and high power prices from canceled energy projects. According to a tracker from FiveThirtyEight, Kelly has voted with President Biden more than 94 percent of the time, becoming one of the administration’s reliable allies in the split Senate,” adds the Federalist.
Of course, these are arguments that Mitch McConnell and the National Republican Senate Committee could have easily made themselves, but McConnell chose to abandon the GOP’s senate nominee in the state because Masters has been critical of the idea of supporting McConnell for another term as the party’s senate leader.
“During the Arizona Republican Senate primary, the venture capitalist candidate pledged not to support McConnell, now 80, for another term in GOP leadership. On Wednesday, Axios revealed McConnell would be slashing an additional $10 million from the Arizona Senate race just more than a month from Election Day,” adds the Federalist.
In short, Mitch McConnell is pulling ads in a state like Arizona because a GOP victory in that state won’t serve his own political self-interests.
The problem is states like Arizona are needed if the GOP hopes to flip control of the chamber.
There’s only so many potential targets in November that could result in a Republican pickup, and Arizona is among the best possible states that the party could hope to defeat an incumbent Democrat in.
But with McConnell sabotaging those efforts, it’s hurting the party’s chances of taking control of the chamber.
That’s why election forecasting outlets like Nate Silver’s 538 now predict that Democrats currently enjoy over 70% odds of holding control of the Senate in November.