In Fresh Swing at Trump, McConnell Bemoans ‘Candidate Quality’ Issue Behind Mediocre Midterm Success

US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) renewed his attacks on former US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, blaming him for the party’s mediocre electoral success in the November 2022 midterms.

“We ended up having a candidate quality [issue],” McConnell told reporters in the Capitol on Tuesday, recalling a series of close races Republicans lost in the November 8 vote. He noted his affiliated super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, “intervened” in the GOP Senate primary races in Alabama and Missouri to ensure the defeat of Trump allies Rep. Mo Brooks and former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, respectively.

Brooks, who helped found the right-wing Freedom Caucus, was once a fierce Trump backer and one of the speakers at Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, 2021, which immediately preceded the US Capitol breach. Ironically, after winning Trump’s endorsement, Brooks claimed the former president had asked him to “immediately remove” US President Joe Biden from the White House, return Trump to power, and hold a new special election. Trump then pulled his endorsement, and Brooks became a vocal opponent.

McConnell said on Tuesday that the GOP had to “relearn one more time - you have to have quality candidates to win competitive Senate races,” recalling several past elections in which that lesson had been hard-learned.

“Our ability to control the primary outcome was quite limited in ’22 because the support of the former president proved to be very decisive in these primaries. So my view was do the best you can with the cards you’re dealt. Hopefully in the next cycle we’ll have quality candidates everywhere and a better outcome,” the Senate GOP chief said.

McConnell has long been a Trump adversary, drawing the then-president’s ire by opposing his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Biden. McConnell later condemned the January 6 insurrection, laid the responsibility for the violence at Trump’s feet, and supported his impeachment, although he ultimately voted for Trump’s acquittal, because he said the trial had become political by being held after Trump had left office.

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However, in the two years since, Trump had lost many other once-staunch allies as well, including in Congress and even his own vice president, Mike Pence. Several polls held since the November 2022 midterm election have also shown that among the GOP rank-and-file, Trump’s popularity has waned, with more supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in a hypothetical 2024 presidential race.

The newest poll, published by Suffolk University and USA Today on Wednesday, showed 56% of polled Republican voters said they’d prefer DeSantis to Trump in 2024. Of all registered voters surveyed, 60% said they didn’t want to see Trump or Biden run in 2024.

“There’s a new Republican sheriff in town,” David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said in a news release. “DeSantis outpolls Trump not only among the general electorate, but also among these Republican-leaning voters who have been the former president’s base. Republicans and conservative independents increasingly want Trumpism without Trump.”

Of the three, only Trump has publicly announced a bid for the presidency in 2024. DeSantis has remained mum on the idea, and while Biden has spoken of a 2024 run and recently joined a toast to such an effort, he has yet to formally open a campaign.