US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has predicted that Republicans have a better chance of gaining a majority in the House rather than the Senate.
“Right now, we have a 50-50 Senate and a 50-50 country, but I think when all is said and done this fall, we’re likely to have an extremely close Senate, either our side up slightly or their side up slightly,” McConnell said on Thursday, adding, “I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate."
"Senate races are just different ... candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome,” the senior politician noted in regard to the upcoming November midterm elections.
McConnell had previously predicted the midterm elections to be “very good” for Republicans, pointing in part to President Joe Biden’s poor approval ratings.
Earlier this month, he said he thinks control of the Senate will be “very tight” after the November races.
“I think it’s going to be very tight. We have a 50-50 nation. And I think when this Senate race smoke clears, we’re likely to have a very, very close Senate still, with us up slightly or the Democrats up slightly,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to American political analyst and activist Myles Hoenig, former US President Donald Trump is still playing an active role in deciding the fate of the Republican Party.
Hoenig told Press TV that the upcoming midterm elections would determine Trump's standing in the 2024 presidential election.
In the meantime, a number of Trump-backed Senate candidates, who had claimed the 2020 presidential election was stolen by Biden, have received the GOP nomination.
J.D. Vance in Ohio, Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and Herschel Walker in Georgia are all trailing their opponents in FiveThirtyEight’s average of latest polls.
According to FiveThirtyEight, Democrats are favored to win the Senate, 64 percent to 36 percent, while Republicans hold an edge over Democrats when it comes to the House, 77 percent to 23 percent.