The GOP has a hyperfocus on just four states for the next Senate race, giving up "on a once-in-a-generation map that massively empowers their base of rural white voters to build a sustainable GOP majority" and choosing to play it safe, HuffPost reported.
The Democrats are considering 2024 as "year zero" as they defend seats in nearly half of the country, including many in states traditionally sympathetic to the Republicans.
But instead of trying to cash in, Sen. Mitch McConnell told CNN in May that Republicans are focusing just on Montana, Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
“The philosophy of McConnell and his world has always been to think smaller, that you put all your eggs in the basket that you’re most likely to win, rather than going on the offensive trying to find new baskets,” a Republican operative told HuffPost.
“We really thought it was going to be an opportunity to go on the offensive and win a big majority, and that didn’t work,” this operative said, referring to 2022. “So for survival’s sake, the party can’t afford to posture that way, because people are going to compare it to what happened last cycle.”
McConnell suggested that Republicans are giving up on certain races since he realizes the nomination of "politically toxic" MAGA candidates are inevitable in them.
“There’s a lot about this map that remains unsettled," Senate Majority PAC president JB Poersch told HuffPost.
"There are a lot of places where we don’t know who the [GOP] candidates are or what that looks like."
While Trump doesn't seem that interested in endorsing his preferred candidates this time around, he could create headaches by elevating candidates based solely on their loyalty to him.
In Arizona, both Democrats and Republicans are bracing for the return of failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who is rumored to be considering a Senate bid in the state to contest the seat of Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. But GOP operatives are worried she could tank another major election.
“I assume Lake’s constituency has shrunken since the time that she ran for governor because of the narrative that she’s been running on,” said Chuck Coughlin, a former Republican who runs a political consulting firm in Arizona. “She’s in the wing-nut fantasy world."
Read the full report over at HuffPost.