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Former President Donald Trump warned Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley on Sunday that they may be in trouble as they are both up for reelection next year.
A total of 33 out of the 100 U.S. Senate seats will be on the ballot in 2024. The breakdown of these seats is skewed considerably towards Democrats, making it a vital election cycle for the party as it looks to hold onto its Senate majority. Of the seats set to be contested next year, 20 are currently held by Democrats, 10 by Republicans, and three independents who each caucus with or generally align with the Democratic Party.
Among the Republican senators facing reelection next year are a handful of major figures in the party, and, according to a July report from Politico, Democratic forces are planning a major push to unseat them. Speaking to Politico, Sarah Guggenheimer, a spokesperson for the Democrat-aligned Senate Majority political action committee (PAC), also highlighted Cruz of Texas and Hawley of Missouri, along with Rick Scott of Florida, as major targets that they will invest heavily in taking on.
In a post to Truth Social on Sunday, the former president weighed in on the matter as he called out Hawley and Cruz, noting that Democrats appear to be targeting them in the 2024 election.
"So interesting that the Democrats are looking hard at the Senate races in both Missouri and Texas. Josh and Ted must be very careful, stranger things have happened!!!" he wrote.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump, Cruz and Hawley via email for comment.
This comes as the Democratic Party's efforts have only increased after Senator Joe Manchin, a rare Democrat in the solidly red state of West Virginia, announced his decision not to run for reelection next year, leaving the door open for Republicans in his state to pick up a seat.
"The 2024 Senate map was always going to be tough for Democrats and Manchin resigning makes it harder," Democratic pollster Carly Cooperman previously told Newsweek. "Texas and Florida are the two opportunities Democrats have for picking up seats next cycle, but both of those races will be tough."
Additionally, Senator Gary Peters, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC), admitted last month that West Virginia was a tough state in which Manchin was well-positioned.
Rather than trying to find a candidate who could keep the state blue, Peters told CNN's Inside Politics Sunday that he'd recruit Democratic challengers in Texas and Florida to defeat the Republicans he described as not strong in their states.
"We're going to have a very strong challenger coming out of the primaries of those two states. And we'll be able to raise resources," he said last month. "Certainly donors around the country have very strong opinions about those two individuals. And we believe we'll have the resources to make the kind of contrast necessary to win those states."
Meanwhile, Cruz and Hawley have not endorsed Trump, who is the GOP frontrunner for the 2024 presidential nomination.
In August, Cruz said backing either Trump or Florida Governor Ron DeSantis could damage his reelection hopes by alienating part of the Republican base.
"I'm staying out of that for many reasons, one of which is that I'm running for reelection in the great state of Texas and we're expecting a serious fight in Texas on my reelect," he said during an interview on Newsmax. "[Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer has made clear that I'm the number one target for him and for the Democrats this cycle and from my perspective, I'd like the support of every Trump supporter and every DeSantis supporter so I'm staying out of it."
In November, Hawley said he thinks Trump will ultimately be the GOP nominee for president, but has not taken the step of making a full endorsement.
"No offense to anybody else who's running, but I just said I don't think the primary is a real contest. I think he's going to be the nominee, and I will absolutely support him against the current president," the senator said.
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About the writer
Natalie Venegas is a Weekend Reporter at Newsweek based in New York. Her focus is reporting on education, social justice ... Read more