From Arizona to Georgia to Pennsylvania to New Hampshire -- Senate races in crucial battleground states are starting to run down to the wire as Republicans find themselves gaining momentum with less than two weeks to go from the November midterms.
Recent polling shows many GOP contenders polling within the margin of error against their Democratic counterparts while Republicans' preferred midterm issues of inflation, the economy and rising gas prices are ever-present on the minds of voters. That's especially shown itself in races like New Hampshire and Georgia.
And while Democrats have been going on offense in states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, they're also punching above their weight in states that should theoretically be favoring Republicans, like in Ohio and Iowa, as The Hill's Al Weaver reports.
That's made predictions about the Senate map anyone's guess.
Balancing act: "It's a crapshoot. I don't dispute the polls. … Whoever turns out is going to win. It's 50-50. It is tight as a tick," Dave Carney, a New Hampshire-based GOP strategist, told Al about the New Hampshire Senate race.
Some of the most enduring competitive candidates on the Democratic cycle have been Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), the former NASA astronaut known for his eye-popping fundraising sums, and Democrat Tim Ryan, who's kept polling tight against Republican J.D. Vance in Ohio even into the fall months.
Meanwhile on the Republican side, Republican Mehmet Oz has closed the gap on Democrat Fetterman in Pennsylvania, targeting the Democrat on crime and his transparency on his health issues. Fetterman suffered a stroke days before the May primary. And even as outside Republican spending exited the race earlier this month in New Hampshire, groups like the Senate GOP campaign arm found themselves drawn back into the state as a more favorable political environment has led to Republican Don Bolduc keeping polling on edge against Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.).
In a nod to the tightening nature of the November midterms, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report changed its rating of the Arizona Senate race on Thursday from "leans Democrat" to "toss up," noting private polling showing the two polling competitively.
Still, Cook Political noted that among all of the races in their "toss up" column, they believed Kelly was favored to win the most among the other Democratic contenders.
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