Senate GOP to Voters: ‘Don’t Screw up the Primaries’

Senate Republicans have warned primary voters to select the best candidates if they hope to win House and Senate this coming November.

As the GOP primaries accelerate in the coming weeks, several Republican Senators told The Hill  “the party could still screw up what they view as an advantageous political environment.”

“The concern is both an echo from previous cycles, where Republicans feel they got burned at the ballot box because less-electable candidates won a primary and a recognition that with a 50-50 Senate, any one race could make-or-break who wins the majority,” noted The Hill.

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) said Republicans would have a higher than 50 percent chance of recapturing the Senate if the primaries were over.

“It would be a lot higher than 50-50 if the primaries were over and we knew who our nominees were. …[There] are some very contentious, competitive primaries and in states, swing states, in a general election where you’ve got to have good candidates,” Thune said.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) concurred that GOP should perform strong this coming November so long as the party doesn’t “screw up the primaries.”

“We’ve been there before,” said Cornyn. “We’ve shown our ability to do that and that’s why it’s important as always to nominate people who can win general elections, and it remains to be seen.”

The big test this coming mid-term will be former President Donald Trump’s kingmaker status depending on how well his endorsed candidates perform in both the primaries and the general election.

For the most part, in every primary race, the Trump-endorsed candidate has shot to the front of the pack, as in the case of J.D. Vance in Ohio. While Republicans have not exactly warmed to Pennsylvania Senate candidate Mehmet Oz due to his left-leaning past, Trump’s endorsement has helped put him in the lead by a razor-thin margin of three points.

“It looks like the [former] president has given J.D. Vance a little bit of a bump. We’ll see how long that lasts,” Cornyn said.

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told The Hill that Trump’s influence will be on a case-by-case basis.

“It will be in some and not the others,” said Cramer. “I think most of the Republicans would rather have Donald Trump’s endorsement than not … but it’s a lot of factors, people are paying attention.”

Despite the fears, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is largely optimistic, believing the election atmosphere is actually “better than it was in 1994” when Republicans swept the mid-terms to take back the House.

“From an atmospheric point of view, it’s a perfect storm of problems for the Democrats,” McConnell said. “How could you screw this up? It’s actually possible. And we’ve had some experience with that in the past.”

“In the Senate, if you look at where we have to compete in order to get into a majority, there are places that are competitive in the general election. So you can’t nominate somebody who’s just sort of unacceptable to a broader group of people and win. We had that experience in 2010 and 2012,” McConnell added.