Senate Republicans like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski describe their 51-seat majority as "excruciating." Apparently, having to find common ground with even one or two Democrats is just tragically exasperating.
“You can lose your majority on practically anything,” Cruz told Politico.
And lose they have on several fronts. For instance, Donald Trump's controversial Veterans Affairs nomination of White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson crumbled under the weight of multiple misconduct allegations. Ryan Bounds, a Trump pick for U.S. circuit court who demonstrated outright disdain for diversity of any kind, also failed to advance after the Senate GOP's sole African-American member declined to back him.
In other words, the big problem for Senate Republicans is that, without a stronger majority, they can't jam through whoever they want regardless of actual qualifications, racist/misogynistic writings, etc. But their big dream, of course, is still to strip millions of Americans of health care coverage by completing their assault on the Affordable Care Act.
“With 53 members we get health care done,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), vice chair of the party’s campaign arm.
Unfortunately for Republicans, a Senate map that once looked extremely promising given the 10 Democratic Senators defending seats in states Trump won in 2016 is now looking a lot less fecund. Instead of solidly padding their numbers to near filibuster-proof levels, they're hoping to gain just a seat or two. And the possibility remains that they might pick up nothing or even lose their tenuous majority.
But at this point, even keeping the status quo would minimize the amount of damage Senate Republicans can do, especially if Democrats succeed in winning back the House.
“The closer we are to balance, the less likely the most outrageous nominees will go through unquestioned,“ noted Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin.