WASHINGTON — Mitch McConnell said former President Donald Trump’s overwhelming influence in Republican Senate primaries led to hobbled candidates in 2022 who lost winnable general election races, leaving Democrats in control of the upper chamber for at least another two years.
“Our ability to control the primary outcome was quite limited in ‘22 because of the support of the former president proved to be very decisive in these primaries,” McConnell told reporters in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. “My view was, do the best you can with the cards you’re dealt.”
The Senate GOP leader’s dour comments on the midterm election were essentially an “I told you so” moment as he pointed to his warnings about “candidate quality” in August.
“I never said there was a red wave. I said we had a bunch of close races and looking at each race separately, I wasn’t making that up ... We ended up having a candidate quality time. Anybody remember who mentioned that back in August? Look at Arizona, look at New Hampshire and a challenging situation in Georgia as well.”
McConnell was referring to Blake Masters, who fell to Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly by 5 points, Don Bolduc who was defeated by New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan by 10 points and Herschel Walker, who lost his runoff race to Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock by about 3 points. Trump endorsed Walker and Masters ahead of their primaries; he only backed Bolduc a week before the election.
Republicans also lost competitive contests in Nevada and Pennsylvania, but McConnell did not mention the defeats of Adam Laxalt or Mehmet Oz in his candidate critique.
McConnell’s super PAC, Senate Leadership Fund, intervened in primaries in the red states of Missouri and Ohio, where mainstream GOP candidates ultimately triumphed.
But his super PAC avoided a clash with Trump’s preferred candidates everywhere else.
Allies of the former president have lambasted McConnell for not investing more money on behalf of Masters in Arizona, but given the margin of his defeat it’s disputable whether more resources could have lifted the first-time candidate over Kelly.
Despite the losses, McConnell survived a challenge to his leadership position by Florida Sen. Rick Scott, the chairman of the National Republican Senate Committee, who was tasked with winning back Senate control.
McConnell compared the 2022 cycle defeats to both 2010 and 2012, two previous problematic Senate election cycles for Republicans.
“Hopefully in the next cycle, we’ll have quality candidates everywhere and a better outcome,” McConnell said in closing his remarks on Tuesday.
He did not elaborate on how he would ensure quality candidate make it through their primaries, and if he would attempt to halt candidates backed by Trump, who is already a 2024 presidential candidate.
