'Trump lost the United States Senate in 2020' — and there’s 'no evidence' he’s changed: Ex-NRSC chair
National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) is engaged in a “monthlong gambit to forge a strategic partnership with” former President Donald Trump in a bid to “oust red-state Democrats,” Politico reports.
According to the report, Trump’s refusal to fall in line with the NRSC “helped relegate the GOP to the minority for the last two cycles” — but now, the party’s hope of snagging the Senate majority “hinges on whether Trump marches in the same direction of the NRSC.”
“President Trump lost the United States Senate in 2020,” former NRSC chair Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) told Politico.
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“He was concerned about himself, and harboring and indulging his own grudges far more than he was advancing values that are important to Republicans,” Young continued. “I see no evidence that President Trump has changed.”
Though Young praised Daines’ efforts to recruit “quality candidates” for the Republican primaries, the former NRSC chair warned that Trump looms large over the chairman position, telling Politico the job boils down to“[ensuring] the sensibilities and ego of an 80-year-old man are attended to.”
Daines, in an interview, highlighted his “strong relationship” with both Trump and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who Politico notes is “done working with Trump” and “has ignored [the former president] after the events of Jan. 6.” Meanwhile, Trump acolytes like Rep. Matt Gates (R-FL) are pressing the former president to endorse “anti-McConnell” candidates in the primaries.
But Daines insists Trump and McConnell, while at odds, share a common goal.
“The common objective they both have is to win control of the United States Senate back and put it back in Republican hands,” Daines said.
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Young remains unconvinced.
“Perhaps there is some sort of calculation by President Trump that in the midst of his own campaign, it might be better for him not to indulge his own narcissism and grudges as much, in furtherance of his own candidacy,” Young said. “But I would only speculate.”
