BURSTSen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) suggested that the Republican Party ended up with a razor-thin majority in the upcoming Senate term because the GOP "took our eye off the ball."
"We took our eye off the ball … We should have 56, 57 Republican senators. But things were done the wrong way in a lot of these states," Tuberville told John Catsimatidis on his radio show, “Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770 AM.
The GOP secured a slight majority, 53 to 47, in the upper chamber following Election Day, which includes independents who generally caucus with Democrats. Republicans entered the election cycle as favorites to recapture the Senate, as Democrats had to defend 23 seats — including four rated as “toss-ups” and one rated “lean Republican” — while Republicans only had to worry about 11 seats, all in states that supported Trump in 2016 and 2020.
Senate Democrats faced an uphill battle toward control of the upper chamber prior to Election Day as Republican candidates in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan were quickly closing the gap.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) is set to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as Senate majority leader.
Tuberville said that "underlying elections" in Nevada, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin were to blame for the small majority in the upper chamber.
“If you look at the underlying elections — one in Nevada, one in Arizona, one in Michigan, and one in Wisconsin – all four of those were in play for the Republicans right at the end. In fact, two of them were way ahead, and they lost in the last few days," Tuberville said.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) ended up beating her Republican opponent Eric Hovde by less than 1 percentage point as the race became increasingly tight in the days before the election, according to a polling aggregate from The Hill/Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ).
In Nevada, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D) beat Republican Sam Brown by less than 2 percentage points, according to polling from The Hill/DDHQ.
In Arizona, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Republican Kari Lake faced off in a close race, with Gallego ultimately beating Lake, 50.1 percent to 47.7 percent, according to polling from The Hill/DDHQ.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) beat her Republican rival, former Rep. Mike Rogers by less than half a percentage point, according to polling from The Hill/DDHQ.