Reid: Dems on track for Senate takeover
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is projecting confidence that Democrats will win back the upper chamber in this year’s elections.
“We need to pick up four seats come November, and I think we’re headed in that direction for sure,” he told reporters during a press conference on Monday.
{mosads}Democrats are facing a favorable election map as they seek to win a 51-vote majority in the Senate. Republicans are defending 24 incumbents this year, including a handful from blue states won by President Obama during the 2012 elections.
Republicans now have a 54-46 majority in the Senate.
Reid said Democrats are looking “very good” in blue-leaning Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania and “doing well” in Missouri, New Hampshire and Florida, saying the states represent “takeovers” for Democrats.
Sens. Ron Johnson (Wis.) and Mark Kirk (Ill.) are widely considered the two most vulnerable Senate Republicans up for reelection, while Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) likely faces a tough fight from Democratic New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan.
Democrats are defending 10 Senate seats, including in Nevada and Maryland, where Reid and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) are retiring. Reid’s state represents the GOP’s best shot at picking up a seat held by Democrats.
Former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto is running for the Democratic nomination.
Reid said that while Democrats “feel extremely comfortable” about the Nevada race, more work needs to be done.
Greg Blair, the deputy communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), said Reid has repeatedly overplayed Democrats’ election chances.
“Hopefully Harry Reid isn’t retiring to pursue a second career as a fortune teller, because his predictions about Democrats’ prospects in the Senate have been laughably wrong over and over again,” he added. “Their dogged pursuit of the same failed partisan agenda in the time that’s passed has done nothing to improve their standing.”
Reid was also optimistic ahead of the 2014 election, saying Democrats were ahead in a handful of states—including Alaska, Colorado, Iowa and North Carolina—that they ultimately lost along with control of the Senate.
This story was updated at 4:44 p.m.
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