Karl Rove Focuses on Senate GOP Takeover in Fundraising Email

Can the Republican Party pick up six Senate seats in the 2014 election and in the process retake the majority in the U.S. Senate? Republican strategist Karl Rove thinks so.

Rove, a Fox News contributor, is using the possibility of a Senate takeover as a fundraising tool in his latest appeal to GOP donors.

A former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush, Rove sent an email to donors on Sunday citing favorable polls and remarks from former New York Times numbers-cruncher Nate Silver as leading indicators that the GOP has a chance to take back the Senate in 2014, so long as the monetary support is there.

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"Washington is buzzing with the news! Even liberal prognosticators now admit Republicans can pick up six seats to take the U.S. Senate in 2014," Rove's email reads.

In his email suggesting a Republican majority in the Senate is possible, Rove noted that six of the seven Democratic Senate seats up for re-election are in states that were won by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 race by a margin of 10 percent or greater.

Rove also highlighted the recent announcement by former Montana Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer that he will not run for the state's open Senate seat in 2014.

"The GOP can win a Senate majority, but it won't be easy. Your support is vital to ensuring Republicans have the resources necessary for victory," Rove's email reads. "Early fundraising is key. Harry Reid knows that: That's why he announced he'll try raising $125 million to beat Republicans."

In his attempt to convince GOP donors to make a contribution to the Republican initiative some 16 months before elections are held, Rove also cites the "Obama campaign's favorite number cruncher, Nate Silver."

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In a New York Times "FiveThirtyEight" blog, Silver wrote: "Best guess, after assigning probabilities of the likelihood of a GOP pickup in each state, is that Republicans will end up with somewhere between 50 and 51 Senate seats after 2014, putting them right on the threshold of a majority."

"Not only is Republican candidate recruitment going well and Democratic recruitment badly, but issues are helping," wrote Rove, "with Obamacare, the sluggish job picture, scandals and an incompetent and out-of-touch White House shaping the political landscape."

If Republicans are able to win back the Senate, it will be the first time since losing the majority in 2006.