Former President Donald Trump railed against Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s effort to cement a GOP minority the Kentucky lawmaker can control as opposed to a Republican majority that would threaten his leadership.
In a Monday night statement, Trump highlighted McConnell’s abandonment of the Arizona Senate race to support incumbent candidates who are loyal to the GOP minority leader, such as Lisa Murkowski in Alaska. Murkowski’s most competitive challenger this fall under the state’s ranked-choice voting scheme is Kelly Tshibaka, a Republican polls show is tied with the 20-year lawmaker.
[RELATED: Alaska’s Ranked-Choice Voting Scheme Was A Plot To Save Murkowski, But It Also Doomed Palin]
“Kelly Tshibaka is doing very well in Alaska, probably leading horrendously bad Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican (barely!),” Trump wrote. “The Democrat has no chance, and yet the Old Broken Crow, Mitchell McConnell, is authorizing $9 Million Dollars to be spent in order to beat a great Republican, Kelly, instead of $9 Million Dollars that could be used for Blake Masters, and other Republicans, that with this money could beat their Democrat opponent. Isn’t it ironic?”
On Thursday, the Anchorage Daily News reported that McConnell’s super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, has poured more than $7 million into the Alaska Senate contest between two Republicans while stripping money from the ripe pick-up opportunity in Arizona. According to RealClearPolitics’ latest aggregate of polls, Republican venture capitalist Blake Masters remains within 4 points of Democrat incumbent Mark Kelly — despite most polls being intentionally crafted to fit pre-determined media narratives and manipulate voter opinions toward Democrats.
But Masters is no fan of McConnell. “I only want to vote for a majority leader that’s serious about implementing an America First agenda, and I don’t mind saying that straight to Mitch McConnell,” Masters pledged in May during the Arizona Republican Senate primary.
In August, McConnell canceled $8 million in spending for Masters, simultaneously pulling a comparatively low $1.7 million from the Alaskan race as a smokescreen to conceal his motives.
Like Masters, Tshibaka, who is running with Trump’s endorsement to oust Alaska’s four-term incumbent, also pledged to support someone else for GOP Senate leader.
“Mitch McConnell has repeatedly bailed out Joe Biden, giving him gifts of Senate votes, which are the only things keeping the Biden administration on life support,” Tshibaka said in a December statement.
In mid-September, McConnell’s super PAC axed another $10 million from Arizona, canceling the rest of the group’s spending in the state, and reinjected money into the Alaskan Senate contest to save Murkowski.
After McConnell pulled out of Arizona, grassroots groups and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, led by Florida Sen. Rick Scott, have stepped in to save Masters. In September, Scott kicked off the general election season with criticism of McConnell’s efforts to undermine chances for a GOP majority by complaining about “candidate quality.”
“I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate,” McConnell had said on Fox News in August. “Senate races are just different, they’re statewide. Candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.”
Scott fired back in an op-ed for the Washington Examiner. “We have great candidates with incredible backgrounds and ideas to make our country better,” Scott wrote. “Do I wish they had more money than their Democratic opponent? Of course. But we have great candidates, chosen by the voters in their states, and our job is to help each one of them win.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee has poured more money into the Arizona Senate race than any other battleground contest this fall with a total of about $10 million. Far short of the nearly $20 million in spending McConnell canceled, grassroots conservative groups have pledged more support for Masters as a key pick-up. Last week, the Sentinel Action Fund, an independent super PAC aligned with Heritage Action for America, announced a seven-figure ad buy behind Masters. The new ad blitz follows another $5 million the group pledged in September.
Meanwhile, according to RealClearPolitics’ aggregate of approval ratings for government leadership, McConnell is the most unpopular politician in America, with a net-negative approval of 33 points.
