{"id":861417,"date":"2026-09-26T14:08:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T14:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/861417\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T14:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T14:08:16","slug":"republicans-fear-two-key-senate-races-are-slipping-from-their-grasp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/861417\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans fear two key Senate races are slipping from their grasp"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Some Republicans are growing worried that two key Senate races once considered critical to holding their majority are slipping from their grasp.\n <\/p>\n

\n In more than a dozen interviews with campaign officials, senators and operatives, there is recognition that North Carolina and Georgia are looking less competitive than the party once anticipated and that decisions need to be made soon about whether to keep investing, even as party officials insist they are not walking away from their candidates there.\n <\/p>\n

\n Republican senators like North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, said it was time for the party to make some tough decisions about spending.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou spend the money where we get Republicans elected,\u201d Tillis said. \u201cI want them to do that now. I mean you don\u2019t spend the money just because you want to help somebody.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Both Rep. Mike Collins, who is trying to unseat Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, and Michael Whatley, who is running against former Gov. Roy Cooper to replace Tillis, are behind in polls and facing questions about their campaigns. A GOP loss in North Carolina \u2013 a state President Donald Trump won three times \u2013 would give Democrats one of the four flips they need to retake the Senate.\n <\/p>\n

\n One GOP super PAC, Old North Action, trimmed its ad reservations in North Carolina by about a third last week, one of the clearest signs yet that the party may be losing confidence in the race. Whatley said this week he feels \u201cvery comfortable\u201d he will have the money he needs.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what the path is for Michael. I mean, I\u2019ll just say that. Unless Cooper just completely stumbles,\u201d a North Carolina Republican strategist, speaking on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss the political environment, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\"Georgia<\/p>\n

\n Collins\u2019 campaign recently made clear to allies it needs more help in Georgia. In a memo posted on his website and dated Monday, the campaign argued that 1 in 10 voters are \u201cstill up for grabs\u201d for Collins. The campaign said they are mostly voters who supported Trump in 2024 and are backing Rick Jackson for governor, who is in a closer race with Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey should be voting for Mike Collins, and they are not yet, mainly because they do not have a firm opinion of him,\u201d the memo says, suggesting stepped-up ad spending could change that.\n <\/p>\n

\n But the party and its allies are having to spend big to shore up even redder seats, including an investment of well over $100 million in Texas.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe are erecting a big wall around all of our candidates,\u201d Senate Majority Leader John Thune said. \u201cThere are headwinds we are facing in all the races around the country.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Party leaders are sending signals that they\u2019re still committed to Georgia and North Carolina in particular. Thune headlined a fundraiser for Collins on Thursday night in Atlanta along with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. And Trump and Vice President JD Vance each visited North Carolina recently as part of their first stops for candidates following the GOP midterm convention.\n <\/p>\n

\n A spokesman for the NRSC, Nick Puglia, criticized Ossoff and Cooper in a statement for this story and promised Republicans \u201cwill continue working to expose their far-left records to permanently retire them.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n NRSC Chairman Sen. Tim Scott pushed back Thursday against any suggestion the committee was deprioritizing Georgia and North Carolina. \u201cHogwash!\u201d Scott wrote on X<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n His denial came after a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans where he discussed the Senate map. An NRSC spokesperson said Scott spoke positively about Collins and Whatley, saying they were chipping away at their polling deficits.\n <\/p>\n

\"Republican<\/p>\n

A crisis of confidence \u2013 and some blame for Trump<\/p>\n

\n But confidence is waning in other corners of the GOP.\n <\/p>\n

\n Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who hosted a fundraiser Monday for a group of Senate GOP candidates in other states, questioned the party\u2019s decision to keep plowing money into races that may no longer be winnable.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHere we are, what, 40 days out? And so I don\u2019t think there is a lot that can be done,\u201d Cornyn said. \u201cI think it is going to be a matter of where the resources should be deployed.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Cornyn\u2019s fundraiser, which he headlined with former President George W. Bush, sent a clear message about his view of the map. The guest list included incumbents and nominees from Alaska, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, New Hampshire and Minnesota. Collins and Whatley were not there. Notably, Cornyn also excluded GOP Senate nominee Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general who defeated him in a primary this year after getting a late Trump endorsement.\n <\/p>\n

\n He said he focused his fundraiser on the other states \u201cbecause I think the money will go a lot further in those places.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Cornyn said he did not think there was anything Whatley could do to turn around his campaign at this point.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think if Thom Tillis was on the ticket, things would look a lot different, but the president basically went after him, and now we\u2019ve got somebody who is not as well-known and he\u2019s struggling,\u201d Cornyn said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Whatley painted an optimistic picture of his campaign during a recent radio interview where he was asked about outside funding.\n <\/p>\n

\"Roy<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe certainly do need the groups, you know, like the Republican Party, to come in and be supportive \u2026 because the Democratic Party is going to send hundreds of millions of dollars into North Carolina,\u201d Whatley said on Thursday. \u201cBut I feel very comfortable we are going to have the resources that we need over the next 42 days to prosecute this campaign and win.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Still, when speaking with CNN, several GOP operatives in North Carolina questioned Whatley\u2019s campaign strategy in this current environment, noting ads and campaign events supporting the former North Carolina GOP and RNC chair have predominately focused on crime. Meanwhile Cooper, a two-term governor who has never lost a race, has centered his campaign around affordability and economic issues.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI thought the crime stuff would be effective, that some of the bad stuff he did in office would come back to bite Cooper. It should be a really good message. But, for whatever reason, it\u2019s not landing yet,\u201d said the GOP strategist. \u201cBut they aren\u2019t doing anything else. Even when the president came, he mostly harped on crime. It\u2019s not resonating, we should be doing something else.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Outside of Old North Action, Republican groups have mostly maintained their ad reservations for the final weeks of the races and the NRSC, the Senate GOP\u2019s campaign arm, has already spent $7.9 million in coordinated spending in North Carolina and $3.6 million in Georgia through the end of August.\n <\/p>\n

\n The optimistic case for Republicans is that North Carolina has a reputation for deciding late. Trump focused heavily on the state in the closing days of the 2024 election, raising speculation that he was concerned about it. He went on to win by 3 percentage points.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThese polls look really rough,\u201d the North Carolina GOP strategist said of this year\u2019s Senate race. \u201cThe good thing is, Republicans always outperform polls. But, never to this degree.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Cooper\u2019s campaign, meanwhile, has long urged Democrats against growing complacent in the state. They were especially outspoken after a Supreme Court ruling lifted limits on coordinated spending with political parties, giving the Republican National Committee \u2013 which Whatley previously led \u2013 more flexibility to spend in races.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cA Democrat has not won statewide federal office here in nearly two decades,\u201d Cooper campaign manager Jeff Allen told CNN in a statement. \u201cWhatley\u2019s elite DC connections mean Republicans are going to spend whatever it takes to keep this seat.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"US<\/p>\n

\n In Georgia, Collins is confronting a stronger-than-expected incumbent in Ossoff, who is already generating buzz as a potential 2028 presidential candidate. (Ossoff has said he has \u201czero interest.\u201d)\n <\/p>\n

\n Thune told CNN, shortly before his trip to Atlanta, that he still believes Collins can win.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think part of it is, it\u2019s a big state, an expensive state and \u2026 we\u2019ve got a House member running, who it just takes a lot of money to get known,\u201d Thune said. \u201cI think once you get the name ID up there, you can litigate the contrast.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s like every place else,\u201d Thune added. \u201cIt\u2019s a resource issue.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Thune\u2019s fundraiser for Collins, which also featured Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, brought in over $400,000 for the candidate, according to a source familiar with the event.\n <\/p>\n

\n Like Cooper, Ossoff is also wary of Democrats declaring victory too soon. He told CNN earlier this week that he is \u201ctaking nothing for granted.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019re still seeing significant Republican super PAC activity,\u201d Ossoff told CNN. \u201cAs for the national groups and whatnot, again, every day I run like I am behind.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some Republicans are growing worried that two key Senate races once considered critical to holding their majority are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-861417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}