As Election Day nears, Republican leaders are making their closing case to voters: We’ll get things done in Washington.
In the final Republican weekly address before voters head to the polls in the midterm elections, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell laid out his vision for a Republican majority in the Senate and made the case for electing Republican candidates.
“A new Republican majority wouldn’t mean we’d be able to get everything you want from Washington,” the Kentucky senator said. “But it would mean we’d be able to bring the current legislative gridlock to a merciful end. It means we’d be able to start sending bills to the president’s desk again, just as the American people expect.”
McConnell’s vision was also delivered with the disclaimer that President Obama, while he remains in office, would likely veto much of the legislation Republicans pass.
“But that’s okay,” McConnell said. “We believe it’s better to let the representatives of the people have their say and vote, even if the president disagrees with the policy.”
Were Republicans to win a Senate majority, and if McConnell is re-elected, McConnell would be the likely Senate majority leader, with authority to craft the Republican agenda in the Senate.
But both of these outcomes are still hypothetical. Republicans will need to net six Senate seats to win a majority; McConnell, meanwhile, will need to best Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in the Kentucky Senate race.
The crux of the Republican case to voters in this midterm election cycle has been that Obama and Democrats in Congress have not only done too little, but what action they have taken has been counterproductive.
McConnell continued to make that case on Saturday.
“In difficult times, the American people expect real leadership from Washington,” McConnell said. “What they don’t need are more unworkable ideas that often make the problem worse.”
