GOP Leader Pours Cold Water on Chances of Retaking the Senate, Knocks ‘Candidate Quality’

Update: 8/21/2022: This story has been updated: It originally falsely stated that Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) voted to convict former President 👤Donald Trump in his trial. We apology for the error.

With the November midterms elections drawing near, it seems that Democrats’ electoral prospects are improving.

And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) seems to believe that Republicans’ chances of wresting control of the Senate away from Democrats are slipping away.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the Kentucky senator said, “I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate.”

“Senate races are just different, they’re statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome,” he added.

Perhaps this was an attempt by McConnell to try to keep Republican voters from becoming complacent ahead of the election.

But he is not alone in predicting that Democrats might keep control of the Senate.

FiveThirtyEight’s model projects that Democrats are “slightly favored” to win the upper chamber.

The Senate is currently divided 50-50, and it seemed like this would be an easy year for Republicans to retake control — surely they could flip just one seat — but so far it looks like it will be an uphill battle.

So what’s happened? Well, Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) voted