John James

During Wednesday’s broadcast of FBN’s “Mornings with Maria,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) discussed his strategy for Senate Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections.

Thune acknowledged that Republicans would have to play defense in some places but said his party was playing offense in others.

However, one key to his strategy, he said, was to contrast Republican candidates with Democrat Senate nominees Graham Platner in Maine and James Talarico in Texas.

“Leader, let me end on the midterm elections, and ask you, how you’re feeling?” host Maria Bartiromo said. “Because the other day I saw what Chuck Schumer was saying over and over again, we’re going to take down Susan Collins, and we will take back the Senate.”

Thune replied, “Well, I mean, I think that any election starts with quality candidates, and I think in all the competitive races around the country, we’ve got really high quality candidates. And then you’ve got to have a record of accomplishment to run on. You’ve got to have resources to get that message, that story out to the American people in their states, and our job is to ensure that we’ve got those resources. Now, this is a tough political environment. It’s a midterm election. The president is not on the ballot, which means turnout is going to be an issue, and we’ve got to really be working the ground game. But I think we’ve got strong candidates in the right places. The Dems are, yeah, they’re giddy and bullish and all that, mainly because they think that there is going to be so much intensity on the Democrat side. What we’ve got to do is build intensity on our side and ensure a new part, part of that is resources and raising money.”