“This Is Not The Way Republicans Wanted To Begin The Year”: Blunt Retirement “Latest In A Series Of Blows” Creating “Immediate Headaches” For GOP

The Most Recent In A “Surge Of GOP Departures” Is “Bad News” For The NRSC And Further Complicates Republican Efforts In 2022 Against A “Particularly Challenging” Map

The fifth Senate GOP retirement of the election cycle is another setback for a struggling NRSC, extending the committee’s “rocky start” and further weakening a Republican minority that can’t seem to convince its incumbents to run for re-election in 2022. A series of analyses are detailing the growing problems Senate Republicans now face with a slew of open Senate seats and the prospect of messy and divisive primaries in defensive battlegrounds across the country.

• The Associated Press put it bluntly: “this is not the way Republicans wanted to begin the year.” The “surge of GOP departures” makes “Republicans’ challenge more difficult in the Senate” and as Republican strategist Rick Tyler said: “Any time you lose an incumbent, it’s bad news.”

• An MSNBC analysis pointed out that “if Senate Republican leaders are trying to discourage their members from retiring, their pitches are apparently proving unpersuasive.”

• The Hill reports that Blunt’s decision to retire is “the latest in a series of blows ahead of the 2022 midterm elections” as Republicans face “a particularly challenging electoral map that now includes a handful of open seats.”

• POLITICO highlighted that this latest retirement will likely “set off a competitive primary battle to replace him and could give Democrats a chance to expand their 50-50 Senate majority.”

• USA Today writes that Blunt’s announcement “complicat[es] GOP efforts to reclaim control of the U.S. Senate,” noting that Republicans already “faced an uphill battle before the retirements.” The open seat creates another “possibility of a ‘messy’ Republican primary involving Trump, his supporters and anti-Trump campaigners” as Sabato’s Crystal Ball “downgraded” their rating of the Missouri Senate race.

• The Washington Post underscored that Blunt’s retirement “creates immediate headaches” for Republicans and is “certain to spark a chaotic primary campaign that could pit a controversial former governor against several Missouri officials,” which “could complicate the GOP’s quest to retake the majority.” Republican strategists are already worried that “a divisive Republican nominee could run into trouble against a talented Democrat.”

• CNN analysts looked at how the “slew” of recent retirements “prove who’s in charge of the GOP now.” 

• And Axios reported that while “the midterm elections are supposed to be a boon to the party out of power, the recent run of retirements — which may not be over — is upending that assumption for the GOP in 2022” while the “departing Republicans also pose an internal problem for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as he tries to retain control of his Senate caucus.”

Republicans have a massive retirement problem that could get even worse — Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Chuck Grassley of Iowa have also refused to commit to running for re-election next year. NRSC Chair Rick Scott is failing one of his main self-proclaimed goals for the cycle of “trying to convince all the GOP incumbents who are up for reelection in 2022 to run again.”

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