Even though the 2022 midterm elections were only a month ago, the campaign for 2024 has already begun. It’s too early to speculate who will be the Democrat or Republican party nominees for President, but we do know what the Congressional landscape looks like. In addition to President, every single U.S. Representative is up for election, and one-third of the Senate or 33 seats. Heading into a high turnout election cycle, we have an unpopular Democrat in the White House, a razor-thin albeit 51-49 Democrat majority in the Senate, and a 5-seat Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Arguably, all three are up for grabs, but the most consequential prize resides on the north side of Capitol Hill. Here’s a look at the Senate map heading into 2024.
Democrats are about to go back to playing defense as they try to hold onto 23 of the 33 seats up in 2024, some of which are in competitive battleground states. Of those, three Democrat incumbents are running in states that Donald Trump won in 2020 – Ohio, Montana, and West Virginia. Republicans will be playing pick up ball in these states and competing in others given the lack of resources needed to defend Republican held seats. The two Republican Senators who won by the slimmest margins in 2018, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), also have the wind at their back as both states shifted to the right in the 2022 midterm elections. In other words, Democrats have no pick up opportunities on the horizon in 2024.
In addition, Sen. Kristen Sinema threw a curveball into Democratic plans when she announced earlier this month that she will be leaving the Democratic Party and filing as an Independent in her 2024 run. Such a move makes it even more likely that Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) runs for the Democrat nomination thus boosting the prospects of the Republican nominee.
On the other hand, Republicans enjoy defending a lesser number of seats in reliably red states. In fact, there are no Republican incumbents up for election in 2024 in states that President Joe Biden won. Republicans will be targeting Democrat incumbents in the battleground states of Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
There is also the factor of incumbents retiring or seeking other office. It’s very early, but so far, Republican Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) has announced he is not running for re-election in 2024, and is running for governor. Congressman Jim Banks (R-IN) who just finished a cycle as Chairman of the conservative House Republican Study Commission, announced he is considering running to replace Braun in the solidly red state. Other incumbents that are likely to retire include Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), who would be 91 and 81 years old in 2024, respectively. One possible retirement that could be competitive is Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) who was first elected to that seat in 2000 and who will be 74 years old in 2024.
When taken altogether, the Democrats face a daunting, unforgiving map that puts Democrats on the backfoot with essentially no pickup opportunities. Senate Republicans have already announced their next campaign chief, Sen. Steven Daines (R-MT) who will take over for Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) as the next Chairman of the National Senatorial Campaign Committee (NRSC). Daines is in a much more envious position then whoever Senate Democrats pick to be their next campaign chief, but given the uphill battle many are urging 2022 DSCC Chairman Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) to stay on the job.
As was true this past cycle, when looking at the Senate map in 2024, Republicans will have the wind at their backs. It remains to be seen if Sen. Daines will get the NRSC involved in Republican primary contests to ensure high caliber candidates, unlike his predecessor who stayed out of primary contests. It is absolutely essential for Republicans to nominate the strongest candidates possible who can win on Election Day if they are to have any chance of taking back the Senate in a high-stakes presidential election year. It’s still early, but the Senate map clearly favors the GOP but it’s up to them to win it.
Bob Carlstrom is President of AMAC Action
We lost a lot of seats this last time because of map changes and with this new influx of people, who knows what will happen? Goodness.
LOL!!! Sorry, but as I read through the massive and extremely costly giveaways that 18 Republican Senators just helped the Democrats ram through yesterday in the $1.7 trillion dollar omnibus bill, I find any article talking about how “when looking at the Senate map in 2024, Republicans will have the wind at their backs.” just too detached from reality to be taken seriously. Here are just a few items that these 18 Senate Republicans voted for in the omnibus bill, that just took away ALL the power of the purse leverage the House Republicans had for 2023:
$80 billion has been authorized and approved for the hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents in 2023. Which means there is now no stopping a massive expansion of the IRS.
$11 billion has been authorized and approved for a new FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.. Who says corruption doesn’t pay.
Over 1/2 a billion to “health and reproductive services” (read Planned Parenthood) to continue taxapyer funded abortions.
Zero dollars for anything related to southern border security, so our southern border will continue to be wide-open throughout 2023.
I could go on, but I encourage everyone to wade through the almost 5,000 pages of this omnibus bill themselves to fully understand how your federal government is spending at least another $1.7 trillion dollars of your tax money on. Which will of course also stoke inflation and require the Federal Reserve to continue to raise interest rates even higher and require the economy to slow down even more. So please AMAC, in the spirit of the holidays please pause this nonsense about another potential “red wave” opportunity for Republicans in 2024 until sometime later in next year. If this past week is any indictation of how Senate Republicans, under Mitch McConnell’s leadership are going to act, there won’t be much of a United States to even try and save come 2024.
Favors the Dems since RINOs aid Dems
I’m to the point where It’s hard to care who is in office. The feckless republicans hardly ever do anything anyway.
Same B.S different day!
I believe at this point it doesn’t make a difference. We’re so far down the toilet, so far in debt, thanks to dims and rino’s that there will be a lot more suffering on the part of the American people before it get any better.
What good does it do to vote Republican? All they do is promise but never deliver. When the dims are in power half the Republicans fall in lockstep with them and don’t even bat an eye.
In order for things to change there has to be a complete and total cleansing of both the House and Senate. In order for that to happen the American people will need to be fed-up and demand change. Only problem is that half the American public is so brain dead and like all the freebies, that it’s going to take awhile, and time is not on our side.
Americans deserve term limits and age limits for their representatives in Congress. Just look at the mess this country is in due to professional politicians with mental health issues due to age!
Yada, yada, yada!
And so it begins.
We need term limits for everyone up in Washington time to have a change of people up there we the people deserve better treatment then what they are doing for us, the president should be younger then what is up there now. What is needed is term limits and age limits for different offices.