This time, the cunning Kentucky Republican has a very enduring super-PAC and he is willing to use it.
“What I’m looking for is someone who can win in November,” McConnell told CNN. “I do not care who they like or not. Can they win in November? So it’s not an ideological thing. It’s not a ‘who do you think is going to be the nominee in ’24’. It can win you in November? ‘
And when asked if his associate super-PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, would drop big bucks in the by-election to help his preferred candidates, McConnell said bluntly, “Only if necessary.”
Republicans say it may be necessary. With a growing number of messy primary elections, and Trump eager to field candidates who fit his brand of politics, the top Republicans are well aware that wars within parties can yield weak general election candidates and their efforts to take back the Senate majority, can get under. something that happened in the 2010 and 2012 elections.
GOP sources privately claim that McConnell enchanted the Arizona government, Doug Ducey, to consider a run, even though the Republican governor – who angrily attacked Trump over the ratification of President Joe Biden’s election victory there – said he was the Democrat Senator Mark will not challenge. Kelly.
In other states, McConnell and other top Republicans are keeping a close eye on the decisions of candidates who could bring the party’s warring wings together, such as Government Chris Sununu in New Hampshire and former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who according to the Republican sources considered. a run against Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto.
Fears over a candidate in Missouri
Former GOP governor of the state scandal, Eric Greitens, has caused concern among a variety of Republicans in Missouri politics and in Washington as he has tested the Trump voices in the media and hinted at a possible bid.
The fear: Greitens could emerge from a crowded primary field and jeopardize a secure Republican seat, just like Republican Todd Akin when he lost to Democrat Claire McCaskill nearly a decade ago.
“There is a lot of concern about what has happened in the past,” Rep. Vicky Hartzler, a Missouri Republican who wants to consider the chair, told CNN when asked about Greitens. “I would therefore hope that Missouri would have someone where these issues would not be a distraction and focus on the priorities of the people of the state.”
Others ignored questions about Greitens’ vulnerabilities and pointed out their own strengths.
“I think I’m the best candidate,” Rep. Jason Smith, a Republican in Missouri who wants to take a turn, said when asked about Greitens.
How Trump reacts remains to be seen. Blunt told CNN that the former president had privately encouraged the senator over the past few days to run again, saying “I will do everything I can to help you” to win, and called Blunt again after the veteran Republican surprised the political world when he announced his resignation earlier this week.
After the calls, Trump was telephonic with Senator Josh Hawley, the Missouri junior GOP senator and former Greitens critic, where the two discussed the open Senate.
In an interview with CNN, Hawley avoids criticism of Greitens – though Hawley called on the governor to resign when he served as state attorney general in 2018.
“I think at this point it’s too early to say,” Hawley said when asked about Greitens’ viability as a candidate in a general election. “I do not think the field has taken shape. I have no well-formed thoughts about candidates.”
Hawley, who does not decide whether he wants to support a candidate in the race, also says he does not know whether Trump will endorse a Republican for Blunt’s seat.
“There’s no math for us that I can think of where we lose Missouri and reclaim the Senate – not with the other seats we have to defend,” Hawley said. “So, we have to take that seat, and I think it’s fair to say that the former president shares that view.”
“For a lot of the insiders, the cabal, the establishment, it’s their small profit system,” Greitens said. “It does not surprise me that there are insiders and lobbyists and established people we do not want to see, but we do not work for it.”
Trump plans more endorsements of Senate candidates
Although Trump’s intentions in Missouri are unclear, the former president is planning a spate of endorsements. He met with Senator Rick Scott of Florida, the chairman of the National Republican Senate Committee, in his golf course on Thursday, and Trump plans to place his weight behind the Republicans who he says fit his form and showed loyalty to him while in the office was.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican in South Carolina who regularly talks to the former president, said Trump plans to be very involved in the GOP’s attempt to take control of the Senate again.
“I think you’re going to see him endorse more and more Republicans for re-election,” Graham said. “There are some he does not go there, but I will be most of them, I hope.”
But when asked if Trump would change his mind and sign up with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who voted in his second indictment to convict him, Graham said: “Well, I do not know about the not one. ”
Trump has publicly and privately voiced his opposition to Murkowski’s re-election – even though McConnell promised to support her. Yet the veteran in Alaska was moderate this week on the question by reporters whether she would run again.
“Well, I have to do it before 2022, right?” she said about making a decision.
In the past week, the former president blamed McConnell for losing the Senate in 2020, calling him “the most unpopular politician in the country.” Trump then encouraged his supporters to give in to his own political apparatus and told the Republican campaign committees in Washington to stop using his parable for fundraising.
And Trump pitched former NFL runner Herschel Walker, who lives in Texas, to run for the Senate in Georgia, and injected a dose of uncertainty into the ever-emerging field there.
Trump called former Senator Kelly Loeffler in February after announcing a new group called Greater Georgia, according to a source familiar with the call. Loeffler, former Representative Doug Collins and other Republicans like Walker, are considering running against Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia in 2022.
Republican strategists warn that the former president’s continued effort to impose his will on the Republican Party, and the nationwide election of candidates with the candidates most loyal to him, their attempt to win back the Senate, can harm.
In addition to Blunt – four Republican senators – Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Rob Portman of Ohio and Richard Shelby of Alabama – have decided to retire. And many of the Republicans who want to replace them are considered even more for Trump.
“We’re losing some talent,” McConnell told CNN. “We will try to get the majority back with more new faces than I hoped.”
“But I think we have a good chance,” the GOP leader added. “I think this government has turned extremely left-wing, which is a privilege for us to explore the ’22 environment.”
Still, Democrats hope Republicans’ embrace of Trump will help them pick up seats, even in states like Ohio that have tended to Republican in recent years.
“If the Republicans continue to go down the path of Mr. Potato Chief and Dr. Seuss, they’re going off a cliff,” Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democratic Ohio, told CNN he is “very interested” in a Senate vote and will make a final decision “in the next few weeks.”
Senate leadership fund officials said their stance on pre-election intervention had not changed from previous cycles.
But this is different from Scott’s plan, with the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee promising to ‘not get involved in the primary election’, meaning his group will not endorse candidates or spend money on races where incumbents do not participate in the primary election.
Despite Trump’s demand that GOP party committees not raise his image in fundraising while campaigning for his own political organization, Scott said the NRSC’s fundraising in February was an ‘impressive move’ and that Republicans’ views would bring them back to power.
“The ’22 election is about business,” Scott said. “Americans do not support the men who do women’s sports. They do not want open borders. They do not want to close schools. They do not want to get rid of fossil fuels.”
McConnell is working on a playbook similar to the one he had as a minority leader when Barack Obama was president, and wanted to keep his party united against the Democratic agenda, as when all Republicans voted against the $ 1.9 billion relief bill that signed this week.
Whether that tactic succeeds in giving him back the majority leader title remains to be seen.
Asked if he wants to run for leader again at the next congress, McConnell holds his cards close to his vest.
“I think I will not answer it at the moment,” he said laughing.
CNN’s Olanma Mang and Ali Zaslav contributed to this report.