Senate Republican campaign chief Steve Daines aims for a majority in the upcoming elections, tempering talk of a red wave while acknowledging the party's favorable map.
Senator Steve Daines, the National Republican Senatorial Committee chair, is tempering any talk of a red wave this autumn leading to a large GOP majority in the Senate.
"I want 51. That's the majority," Daines told Fox News Digital this week when asked what he's aiming for in November's elections.
Democrats control the U.S. Senate, 51-49, but Republicans are looking at a favorable Senate map this year, with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs.
Three of those seats are in red states that former President Trump carried in 2020 — Ohio, Montana and West Virginia, where Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin is not running for re-election.
"The first state that we know that we're going to win at this point is West Virginia," Daines said. "There's one pickup seat right there."
Five more Democrat-held seats are in key general election battleground states. Democrats are also defending an open seat in blue Maryland, where popular former two-term Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is running for the Senate.
"We like where Larry's at. We know that's going to be a tough race because Maryland is a blue state, but it's a Hogan state first and foremost," Daines argued.
While the map favors the GOP, Daines, the junior senator from Montana, is on the same page as longtime Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who also appears to be pouring cold water on hopes of sweeping victories.
Daines's tone differs from that of his predecessor, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who predicted a 55-seat majority would come out of the 2022 midterms but fell far short.
"As we looked at the results of '22, nobody was happy," Daines said. "Everybody likes winning. Nobody likes to lose. We looked first and foremost at a strategy that would start with finding candidates that could win not just primary elections but general elections."
Daines stated in a Fox Digital interview in December 2022 that he would "do whatever it takes to make sure we have a Republican majority."
He has actively involved the NRSC in contested GOP primaries, a significant change from his predecessor.
"We're positioned now in most of these states with candidates that not only can win primaries but are making every general election race right now competitive," Daines said.
Plenty of blame for 2022's GOP Senate election setbacks was directed at Trump, who shaped key primary battles. Some of his endorsed candidates, such as Herschel Walker in Georgia and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, went down in defeat.
In 2024, Trump, the NRSC, and McConnell have largely aligned in Senate race recruitments.
Daines credits his "strong productive working relationship" with Trump, which has bridged the intra-party divide.
"From the very beginning, the president and I have worked very closely, very carefully, finding candidates that we agree on, that are the best candidates that can not only win primaries but general elections," he noted.
However, Daines has not totally avoided competitive primaries.
Trump-backed Bernie Moreno won a nomination battle in Ohio, while Republican Senate primaries are heating up in Michigan and Nevada, where Trump and the NRSC are again backing the same candidate.
Daines remains optimistic, citing President Biden's low popularity ratings.
"Democrats have got to really combat the incredible headwinds they will face with a president who is so unpopular," he argued. "Joe Biden makes Jimmy Carter look like a superstar. This is a real problem that the Democrats have."
