Why We're Fighting to Keep the Senate

The conventions are behind us and now, with just 61 days to go to Election Day, we need to fight hard until the finish to help our Republican candidates win their races. We’re specifically targeting key Senate races, because keeping the Senate majority is so important this year.

Former Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) and Mike Solon of US Policy Metrics write in the Wall Street Journal that since Republicans regained the majority in the Senate in 2014, GOP Senators have pushed for a pro-growth economic agenda that has helped millions of Americans build more prosperous lives. We need to return those great leaders to the Senate in 2020. Gramm and Solon write:

What does the GOP class of 2014 have to show for its six years in office? Consider Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner. In the six years the Democrats controlled the Senate, employment in Colorado fell by 138,000 jobs, but from his election through 2019 Colorado added 400,000 jobs. Median household income rose by $8,332. Electing Mr. Gardner and a Republican Senate meant more jobs, more income and less poverty in Colorado.

Maine won big when Sen. Susan Collins was reelected in 2014 to help flip the Senate to Republican control. Household income, which had fallen by $828 while the Democrats held the Senate majority, has risen by $3,761 since 2014. Instead of 25,200 more Mainers falling into poverty, 31,300 escaped it. After falling by 4%, homeownership rose by 4%. And Maine enjoyed the lowest annual unemployment rate ever recorded in 2019.

Every GOP senator up for reelection in 2020 can make a similar case. During the term of Sen. Thom Tillis, North Carolina’s median household income rose $3,697 while the state’s poverty population fell by 250,900. In taking a Democratic seat in 2014, Sen. Joni Ernst helped deliver 3.9 times as much median household income growth for Iowans as during the previous six years. The number of Iowans living in poverty fell and homeownership rose.

For Arizonans, where Sen. Martha McSally was appointed in 2019 to fill the vacancy originally created by John McCain’s death, job growth surged seven times as fast as under the Democratic Senate. The Republican Senate helped 215,500 Arizonans escape poverty, increased homeownership, and pushed median household income up by $9,989. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler can tell Georgians that a Republican Senate meant nearly six times as many new jobs, almost twice the growth in median family income, 329,100 fewer Georgians living in poverty, a rise in homeownership, and a record low unemployment rate. The Republican Senate delivered the lowest annual unemployment rates on record in 26 states including Alaska, Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

No senator has meant more to his home state than Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Homeownership fell by 5% in Kentucky when Democrats controlled the Senate, but rose by 2.8% since 2014. The poverty level has fallen by 87,000 after rising by 40,000 while Democrats held the Senate. After falling by $5,077, median Kentucky income has risen by $9,128. Not since Henry Clay has a Senate leader from Kentucky done so much for his state and the nation.

Good policies produced good times, with nationwide record lows in unemployment for blacks, Hispanics, women, and the disabled. Poverty rates for blacks and women hit record lows, with wages and wealth rising faster for those at the bottom than for those at the top. A bad bug, not bad economic policies, shut down progress.

We can’t afford a return to a Democrat-run Senate and the Obama-Biden economy!

To see the Senate candidates endorsed by the RJC PAC and donate to their campaigns, visit the RJC PAC site.