In a season when wish lists are the order of the day, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made his appeal to the holiday gods Tuesday:
"It would be extremely helpful...to carry purple states," McConnell said at a POLITICO Playbook breakfast. "It would make it easier for us to have a majority in the next Congress."
LOL—yeah, sure would be "helpful" to have someone at the top of the GOP ticket who doesn't also top the entire presidential field in negative favorability numbers. How about we check in with Gallup on where your current field stands, Mitch:
Donald Trump: -27 Jeb Bush: -14
Chris Christie: -5
Ted Cruz: -3
Marco Rubio: +5 Ben Carson: +6
Among those candidates, it's worth noting that The Donald and Jeb! are also the most well known candidates, with 91 percent of voters being familiar with Trump to Jeb!'s 78 percent familiarity rating. The lesser known candidates like Rubio and Cruz, who both sit at 61 percent familiarity, almost surely benefit from being, well, lesser known.
For context, Hillary Clinton is the best-known candidate in the field at 94 percent and she has a -4 favorability rating. Bernie Sanders is known to 66 percent of respondents and he's at +2 on favorables.
Trump and Cruz are currently running one and two heading into tonight's debate, but for some reason, McConnell wasn't too keen on naming names.
He refused to comment on whether specific candidates such as Sen. Ted Cruz, his chief antagonist in the Senate, or Donald Trump would hurt the party's cause in states like Florida, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.
Huh. Cat got your tongue, Mitch?