Among the many reasons Republicans blamed for their lackluster performance in the 2022 midterm elections, especially in Senate races, was a lack of top-notch candidates due in part to the party’s unwillingness to get involved in messy primary races.
Thus, when Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) in January 2023 took over the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, he followed a much different playbook than the one adhered to by his predecessor, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL). He has aggressively recruited candidates that he sees as having the clearest pathway to victory and has put the full weight of the NRSC behind them.
On Tuesday, the last recruit fell into place as businessman Eric Hovde announced his campaign for the seat currently held by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) in what will surely be one of the most competitive senate races of the 2024 cycle.
Republicans need only a net gain of two seats to win back the majority in the Senate and are all but guaranteed at least one with the retirement of centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV).
With Hovde, Daines and the NRSC have a complete slate of high-quality, disciplined candidates for every competitive race on a Senate map that could hardly be more favorable to the GOP.
In Montana, Daines successfully paved the way for businessman Tim Sheehy to be the Republican nominee in the race against arguably the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent, Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT). Former President Donald Trump, at the encouragement of Daines, endorsed Sheehy and effectively ended any chance Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) had of winning the nomination. Rosendale lost to Tester in 2018.
Daines also successfully worked to recruit David McCormick for the Pennsylvania seat held by Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) and succeeded in his effort to freeze out state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who was soundly defeated by Democrat Josh Shapiro in the state’s 2022 gubernatorial election.
In Michigan, Daines’s prized recruit, former Rep. Mike Rogers, is a good bet to secure the GOP nomination in the race to succeed the retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and U.S. Army veteran Sam Brown is likely to secure the GOP nod to take on Sen. Jackie Rosen (D-NV) in the Silver State.
And while several Republican candidates have filed to run in the Ohio primary to take on Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), businessman Bernie Moreno is the favorite to clinch the GOP nomination later this year after earning Trump’s endorsement.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
In short, the Republican senate candidates for 2024 are nothing like the crop of carpetbaggers with questionable conservative credentials that won GOP nominations in 2022. The candidates Daines and the NRSC have recruited have none of the baggage that plagued some of those candidates. And with some shrewd politicking, Daines has helped make their road to the general election easier by avoiding contentious primaries.
If the voters fail to send a Republican majority to the U.S. Senate in November with a crop of high-quality candidates, the Senate GOP will have some serious soul-searching to do regarding its messaging, campaign strategies, and policymaking.