Washington — Senate Majority Leader John Thune is set to travel to several states with key Senate races in the coming weeks as the GOP fights to hold on to its majority in the upper chamber.
Thune will travel to North Carolina on Thursday, with stops to follow in Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Florida, South Carolina, Ohio and two visits to Iowa, he told CBS News in an interview. He also said he would be making some fundraising swings. Politico first reported on Thune’s travel plans.
“I’ve told all our candidates if it’s useful, if I can come in and help you in any way, I will,” Thune said in his office near the Senate floor. “If it’s not, I won’t, and I’m fine with that.”
The majority leader traveled to Georgia last week to campaign with Rep. Mike Collins, who’s looking to unseat Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in the Peach State. And he cited fundraising events he attended in New York earlier this week, as he gears up for a heavier travel schedule after the Senate leaves town later this week.
“If it’s a fundraising event, sometimes if that’s helpful, if it’s a media event — we did both down in Georgia with Mike Collins,” he said. “I said, I’ll do whatever I can to help the team, and if that’s just staying out of the way, I’m fine with that.”
Thune has taken criticism from the party’s right flank and, at times, President Trump, over his assessment of the chamber’s ability to pass the SAVE America Act, an elections-related bill that the president and his allies have pushed in recent months. The South Dakota Republican told reporters during the primaries that his endorsement might not be helpful to certain GOP Senate candidates.
“Is it useful or not? Probably in most cases, not in primaries,” Thune said Tuesday. “But now we’re in a general election setting.”
Senate Republicans have been sitting on a massive war chest to blanket the airwaves in the weeks before the midterms. The Senate Leadership Fund and affiliated groups announced in August more than $500 million raised to support their candidates. The fundraising efforts come as Senate Republicans are trying to defend their majority, with 53 seats in the chamber. And despite a map that appeared favorable to the GOP heading into the cycle, a number of states that were not previously in play for Democrats have grown increasingly competitive as the unpopular war with Iran drags on and affordability issues remain top of mind for voters.
At the moment, Thune sees the outlook for Senate Republicans as a “jump ball.”
“I think we’re in position to preserve our majority, depending on how some of these close races break. And sometimes you don’t know that for sure, but I think we’re as well positioned as we can be because we’ve got, these are all margin-of-error races, and historically we’ve outperformed polls,” Thune said. “It’s 35 days out or thereabouts. Right now, it could go either way, and I just think it’s going to come down to how we execute on the homestretch.”
