Facing the historically bad wave in the midterms of a new controlling party's first term, Republicans are slowly managing to turn the tide by luring competitive candidates into 2018 Senate and gubernatorial races, as Politico chronicled Sunday.
"Republicans are in a little bit of a better situation than they have been in other potential wave years," former Ohio GOP chairman Matt Borges told Politico. "But did we know that six or eight months ago, when a lot of these candidates had to really make these decisions about whether they had to run?
"I can't honestly tell you that people are not concerned about this political environment. I think we're all appropriately concerned about it."
The GOP received favorable additions to their 2018 tickets late this week as Mitt Romney has announced his Utah Senate campaign, Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., ended his waffling and will challenge Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., and Gov. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is now potentially lined up to take on Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
"No one bats 1.000," former Senate GOP campaign executive director Rob Jesmer told Politico. "But generally speaking, we have a decent slate of candidates."
The GOP is defending eight Senate seats this November, while Democrats face challenges for 26, including 10 in states won by President Donald Trump in 2016.
"Democrats want their donors to believe they have a real chance at taking back the Senate, [but] for all the chatter about recruiting, if I look at the landscape, what we're trying to do is hold the majority, and [we] have the pieces on the board," GOP strategist Scott Jennings told Politico.