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Every conservative should want Republicans to regain control of the Senate after this year's midterms. One would think nobody would be more enthusiastic than the man who stands to become majority leader if fortune should smile on the GOP.
Yet there was Mitch McConnell, at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon in his home state of Kentucky, not just dampening expectations for Senate success, but casting aspersions on the Republican candidates who may become his colleagues.
"I think there's probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate," McConnell told the audience. "Senate races are just different; they're statewide." He is correct about that, of course. While the House of Representatives looks like a sure flip, there is a series of key races that would have to fall fortuitously for the Senate to return to Republican control.
But the current minority leader did not stop at soberly assessing his party's chances. He chose to finish his remarks by damaging them. "Candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome," McConnell added, instantly reminding every Republican that he remains a frustrating mix of strategic mastery and establishment rot.
The man whose every breath should be in support of Republican candidates could not restrain himself from disparaging campaigns which could at long last turn Congress into a check on the Biden agenda. The presidency doesn't open up for two more years, but there is at least the hope of a GOP House and Senate to stop the bleeding.
So which campaigns earned the McConnell snark that delighted Democrats from coast to coast? Speculation varies, but three stand out.
In Georgia, Herschel Walker trails Raphael Warnock, whose smooth evangelical patter contrasts with Walker's occasionally challenged diction.
In Pennsylvania, Dr. Mehmet Oz trails Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, whose recovery from a stroke may be an easier path than Oz's recovery from a sputtering campaign that has drawn muted conservative enthusiasm.
And in Ohio, the race between J.D. Vance and Congressman Tim Ryan for a seat once thought safe for Republicans currently looks like a toss-up.
In Vance's case, McConnell may simply have a long memory. Last fall, the candidate telegraphed his preference for a new leader should the party reclaim the Senate: "I think McConnell has shown at times that he's a little out of touch with the base," Vance said at the time. "I think that it's time that we moved beyond the very old leadership class that's dominated the Republican Party.... We've got to bring some new blood in. We've got to get people the base is really excited about."
Not the kind of remark designed to make a lifelong friend of Mitch.
So Vance may not be a loyal, ring-kissing footsoldier. Oz may not be knocking 'em dead in Pennsylvania. And Herschel Walker may not be William F. Buckley.
I don't care. McConnell's job is to make clear that he is committed to do whatever he can to help sell these candidates and others—from Blake Masters in Arizona to Adam Laxalt in Nevada to Ted Budd in North Carolina—as voters' best options in their respective states.
In Walker, Oz, and Vance, McConnell may face members less likely than usual to buckle to his will. Donald Trump has made clear his own disapproval of the McConnell legacy, and can be expected to spare no criticism if he senses the grizzled Senate veteran does not welcome a new, Trump-infused batch of senators.
No one is calling for obsequious cheerleading. McConnell should not be predicting a red tsunami that gives him a large Senate majority. In fact, he should be describing the state-by-state challenges that lie ahead, as part of a rallying cry to voters in all states to mobilize and make the Senate flip happen.
Grumbling about "candidate quality" resurrects the worst images of McConnell as a dinosaur beholden to the donor class and the gladhanding old-school GOP while voters reward bolder candidates in the Trump era. This sadly mutes the heroic memory of his courageous stand to keep the 2016 Supreme Court vacancy open, allowing voters to choose the president who would fill it. As Attorney General Merrick Garland reveals layers of political spite, holding him off the Court looks more admirable all the time.
That is the McConnell the party needs this election season—a Republican leader willing to fight no matter what Democrats and the media might say. His support of every Republican candidate should be part of a nationwide message that, across a landscape of states, with a variety of candidates, his party offers relief to an America reeling from a troubled economy, porous borders and the collapse of law and order.
If McConnell can't bring himself to show that kind of energy, voters (and more than a few senators) would be well justified in clamoring for a new majority leader if enough Republicans prevail. Such a challenge will almost certainly be futile, since many senators will cringe at the prospect of opposing McConnell for leader, only to face reprisals when he likely wins anyway.
So let's dispense with the drama. Let's see the Mitch McConnell who has shown a capacity for inspiring his own ranks while staring down opponents. Let's set aside the hand-wringing insults about "candidate quality" and craft a sentence he can repeat at every speaking engagement from now to November 8: "every one of our candidates is better than every one of theirs."
Mark Davis is a talk show host for the Salem Media Group on 660AM The Answer in Dallas-Ft. Worth, and a columnist for the Dallas Morning News and Townhall.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
