Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday expressed optimism that Republicans will win a majority in November, but he said the party’s nominees should be credible — otherwise, they are “in trouble.”

During remarks at an event sponsored by Punchbowl News, McConnell said the 2022 elections are “going to be a midterm report card on the performance of the president and the president’s approval.”

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“I’ve been around for a while, and the best generic ballot question I can recall was plus-three for us,” McConnell said. “I saw one the other day that had plus-10. So the one thing I think you can safely say going into the ’22 election is we’re going to have a really good environment.”

“So it leads to the second question, which is how could you screw this up?” he said. “Well, I’m going to mention four names some of you may actually remember: Christine O’Donnell. Sharron Angle. Todd Akin. Richard Murdock,” McConnell said, listing Republican Senate nominees from the 2010 and 2012 cycles who won their primaries, but then lost to the Democrats after committing a series of gaffes and expressing extremist views.

McConnell said his point was that the party has to “have to have electable nominees.”

“So far, moving into the primary season, I’m optimistic that we’re going to have a fully electable nominee. In every one of the places that will determine our majority,” he said.

States that will determine the majority, McConnell said, are places where Republicans can compete, including Georgia, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. Senate Republicans need to net a single seat to win a majority in the chamber, which the party lost due to a series of Democratic victories in the January 2021 runoffs in Georgia.

Without elaborating on the details of the Missouri Republican Senate primary, where former Gov. Eric Greitens is facing domestic abuse allegations as he continues to seek the party’s nomination, McConnell noted that “Democrats have apparently recruited a candidate in Missouri.”

“So that could end up being competitive,” he said.

But McConnell argued that in any state, “you better nominate a fully capable, credible nominee or you’re in trouble.”

McConnell said he doesn’t have an ideological test for candidates, saying he views how a candidate sees former President Donald Trump as “irrelevant.”

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Asked about several Republican governors who declined to pursue Senate bids, McConnell said: “I’m sure that being a CEO is more attractive to some people than others, but what I always point out is if you have to be on the board, it’s a pretty good board.”

Original Location: McConnell wants ‘electable nominees’ only in quest to flip Senate to Republicans

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