In the face of a challenging electoral landscape for his party in this year’s midterms, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid predicted this week they’ll hold onto their tenuous majority in the Senate barring some unforeseen incident.
“We’ll keep the majority unless something unexpected happens,” the Nevada Democrat told the Reno Gazette-Journal ahead of a local party confab Sunday.
Mr. Reid’s party currently holds a five-seat majority in the upper chamber, but open seats in Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia appear likely to flip to the GOP at this point. That means Republicans essentially need to unseat at least three incumbent Democrats in a handful of winnable races in states like North Carolina, Alaska, Arkansas and Louisiana, while retaining GOP-held seats in competitive races in Kentucky and Georgia, to re-take control of the chamber.
Senate Majority PAC, a super PAC with ties to Mr. Reid, has also been spending big money recently in seats once thought to be safe for Democrats to hold like Colorado, Iowa, Michigan and even New Hampshire, indicating the needle the majority leader might have to thread to keep the majority after the fall elections.
“If the election were today we would hold the majority, but the election is not today,” Mr. Reid told the crowd at the Washoe Democrats’ annual Jefferson-Jackson brunch.
Mr. Reid also hammered two of his favorite targets — the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch — who he frequently accuses of wanting to buy America.
“They think they have enough money to buy America,” Mr. Reid said. “Not only with the U.S. Senate, not only with the House of Representatives but with the constitutional offices as well. They are even involved with the State Senate races here as well.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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