Senior Republican Rick Scott offered an optimistic assessment of his party’s chances in midterm Senate elections on Thursday, saying the G.O.P. could win 55 seats on its way to taking back the chamber.
It puts the head of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm at odds with Mitch McConnell, the party’s leader in the chamber, who has suggested the election is too close to call.
Election forecasters suggest the Democrats have a slight edge and could retain control, but polls have shifted towards the Republicans in recent days.
‘It starts right here, we’re going to get 52 Republican senators, we have to win here,’ Scott, National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman, said at a get-out-the-vote event with Senate candidate Rep. Ted Budd in North Carolina, according to The Hill.
‘I think we can get 53, 54, 55.’
The Senate is currently split 50-50. Democrats are able to use the vice-president’s tie-breaking vote to give them control.
But that could change in 18 days’ time, when voters go to the polls with 35 Senate seats up for grabs.
Republican Rick Scott offered an optimistic assessment of his party’s chances in midterm Senate elections, saying the G.O.P. could win 55 seats on its way to taking back the chamber
A tracking poll by Emerson College shows how Republicans jumped out to a five-point lead with the midterm elections now only 18 days away
In recent days, polls have noted a rise in support for Republicans.
On Friday, a new Emerson College poll showed that the party had opened a five-point lead in the generic ballot (when respondents are simply asked which party they will vote for) since Democrats drew level last month.
And a model run by the FiveThirtyEight political website now gives Democrats a 58 percent chance of retaining control of the Senate, down from 71 percent last month.
Scott triggered applause when he told a roomful of Republican supporters in Greensboro: ‘The energy is on our side. People are fed up with the Biden agenda.’
Earlier in the week, an East Carolina University poll showed Budd held a six-point lead over Democratic candidate Cheri Beasley. Last month, his lead was three points.
Scott’s route to a five-seat majority would mean Republicans would have to protect vulnerable seats in Ohio ,North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin while beating five Democratic incumbents.
As a result, McConnell has only said Republicans have a 50/50 chance of retaking the Senate.
‘We are in a bunch of close races,’ he recently told reporters
‘It’s going to be really, really close either way, in my view.’
Rep. Ted Budd (left) has a six-point lead over Democratic candidate Cheri Beasley in their North Carolina race, according to an East Carolina University poll published Tuesday
Scott offers a rosier Republican outlook than party Senate leader Mitch McConnell. ‘It’s going to be really, really close either way, in my view,’ he told reporters recently
Scott said polls were showing Republicans making gains in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Connecticut.
‘If you look at the weekly polls and do we lot of polls, every week is getting better,’ he told The Hill in an interview.
In Wisconsin, he said the latest Marquette poll showed Republican Sen. Ron Johnson leading his Democratic challenger by six points – up from a one-point lead early last month.
‘Then you look at here, Ted’s been consistently up,’ he said, declaring the North Carolina Senate race as a likely GOP win. ‘That keeps us at 50-50.’
Arizona, Colorado, and even Georgia, where the Republican candidate is fighting off allegations about his personal life, could all be turned into Republican wins
‘Then you look at Herschel Walker, you look at all the polls, Herschel’s up three,’ he said, without citing specific polls. ‘Georgia, we’ll pick that one up.’
Earlier President Joe Biden said he believed opinion polls will shift back towards Democrats ahead of next month’s midterm elections after the most recent surveys suggested Republicans were taking the initiative.
President Joe Biden on Friday said he believed polls will shift back towards Democrats ahead of next month’s midterm elections because of what he said was ‘good news on the economy’
‘The polls have been all over the place,’ he said at the White House.
‘I think that we’re going to see one more shift back to our side in the closing days and let me tell you why: I think that we’re starting to see some of the good news on the economy.’
He said the midterms were not a referendum but a choice between his policies and Republicans who want to repeal his effort to cut Medicare drug prices and are threatening to abolish Social Security.
‘It’s mega MAGA trickle-down,’ he said. ‘The kind of policies that have failed the country before and they’ll fail it again.’
Biden’s party had seen its midterm prospects improve with a series of legislative wins – including passage of the Inflation Reduction Act – and with a reduction in gas prices.
However, a decision by OPEC+ put fresh pressure on global oil prices and voters continue to say they are worried about the economy.