McConnell Says There's 'Greater Likelihood the House Flips than the Senate'

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted that his party may have a tough time winning control of the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections.

At a recent event in Kentucky, McConnell said he thinks "there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate" and that "candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome." He also predicted that "we’re likely to have an extremely close Senate, either our side up slightly or their side up slightly" after the elections.

Historically, the president's party tends to fall short in midterm elections. Currently, Democrats are favored to win the Senate, 64% to 36%, while Republicans are expected to win the House, 77% to 23%, according to FiveThirtyEight (Center bias).

News sources across the political spectrum focused on McConnell's "candidate quality" remark, and tied his concerns to Republican underperformance in the 2010 midterms while President Barack Obama was in office. Right-rated outlets tended to frame his comments as concerning; Fox News called it a "grim prediction," and the Daily Caller (Right bias) said McConnell had "sounded the alarm" on Republicans' Senate chances. On the left, NBC News reported that McConnell "has long worried that subpar candidates could play into Democrats' hands."