Democrats are praying on this view from the New York Magazine….
The 2022 Senate landscape favors Democrats on paper. They are defending only 14 seats, none of which are in states carried by Donald Trump in 2020, while Republicans are defending 20 seats, two of which (Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) are in states Biden won in 2020. But that’s misleading. Many of the 2022 Senate races are in states that were very close in 2020. So a uniform pro-GOP swing of just a few points could sweep Democratic seats in Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada into the GOP column, while putting Republican-held seats in North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin out of reach. An even bigger pro-GOP wave could, in theory, engulf Democratic senators in New Hampshire and possibly even Colorado.
Democratic hopes of hanging on to the Senate (which is important even if they lose the House, and their trifecta, since the Senate confirms presidential executive and judicial nominees) depend on minimizing the overall GOP wave while over-performing in races where their candidates are simply superior to the GOP’s. Fortunately for the Donkey Party, Republicans have some Senate nominees with real weaknesses. And so far nearly all of these questionable candidates owe their nominations to the favor of Trump, with all the attendant peril this association might bring in a general election that is supposed to be a referendum on Biden.
Let’s look at a few of these strange elephants…..