Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman Rick Scott (R-FL) said that Republicans have a path to as many as 55 seats in the Senate.
At a get-out-the-vote rally with North Carolina congressman and Senate candidate Ted Budd, Scott expressed his bullish outlook on Republicans’ chances to take back the Senate in the 2022 midterms. Scott said that the energy is on the side of the GOP because Americans are weary of the Biden administration after two years. He also cited a number of polls showing that Republican candidates are within striking distance in many key states.
“It starts right here, we’re going to get 52 Republican senators, we have to win here,” Scott said about Budd’s race, via The Hill. “I think we can get 53, 54, 55.”
“The energy is on our side,” he added. “People are fed up with the Biden agenda.”
In an interview with The Hill shortly after the event, Scott pointed to several races where Republicans are either leading or closely behind their Democratic rivals. “If you look at the weekly polls and do we lot of polls, every week is getting better,” he said.
First, Scott pointed to the races in Wisconsin and Nevada, where the GOP is up consistently. In Wisconsin, incumbent Senator Ron Johnson is leading in the race against Democratic lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes. A poll from Marquette University shows Johnson with a six-point lead over Barnes. In Nevada, former attorney general Adam Laxalt has held a consistent lead since early September against incumbent Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. A CBS News/YouGov poll from this week showed Laxalt ahead by 1.
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“Then you look at here, Ted’s been consistently up,” Scott said of Budd, who has also led against former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley since the race began, according to RealClearPolitics. “That keeps us at 50-50.”
“Then you look at Herschel Walker, you look at all the polls, Herschel’s up three,” he said, though he did not specify which poll showed that result. “Georgia, we’ll pick that one up.” Walker led incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock in several polls in early September, but has since dipped in the polls after the left-wing Daily Beast published an article claiming that Walker paid for a woman to have an abortion. But the latest poll, from Landmark Communications, shows Walker and Warnock tied.
In Arizona, Scott said the GOP has “defined” incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly, and Republican “Blake [Masters] is barely behind.” An exclusive poll conducted by The Daily Wire and The Trafalgar Group showed Masters trailing Kelly by just one point.
In New Hampshire, Scott said “there’s a poll out showing [GOP challenger Don] Bolduc down two,” though once again, he did not name a specific poll. A poll from the end of September, conducted by Trafalgar, showed Bolduc trailing incumbent Democrat Maggie Hassan by just three points. “Hassan’s numbers have been horrible as far as her approval,” Scott said, indicating that Bolduc may be able to pull off an upset.
Scott also pointed to Colorado and Washington as states where Republicans could pull off a surprising upset. “Joe O’Dea’s barely behind, Tiffany Smiley is down two,” he said. Colorado GOP candidate Joe O’Dea is struggling against incumbent Michael Bennet; the closest poll shows Bennet with a five-point lead. Washington Senate candidate Tiffany Smiley, however, is in much better shape — a Trafalgar poll from September showed incumbent Patty Murray leading Smiley by just two points.
“I’m optimistic it’s going to be a good night and we have good candidates, they’re running good races. There’s a lot of energy,” he said.