Trump urged not to announce presidential run until after Georgia runoff

Republicans are not on track to flip as many House seats in the midterm elections as they had hoped. In fact if they win the majority, it could be very similar to the 220-212 balance of power that Democrats currently hold. Between that and the Georgia Senate race going to a runoff, former President Donald Trump is being urged to delay declaring his expected run for president. He teased a very important announcement currently scheduled for Monday in Florida.

“I’ll be advising him that he move his announcement until after the Georgia runoff,” Former Trump Adviser Jason Miller told the AP. “Georgia needs to be the focus of every Republican in the country right now.”

Trump endorsed approximately 330 candidates in the election.

“I think if they win, I should get all the credit, and if they lose, I should not be blamed at all,” Trump told NewsNation in an interview.

Here’s how those endorsements performed. His biggest win is in the Ohio Senate race, where Yale educated attorney and Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance defeated Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan. Next door in Pennsylvania, Dr. Oz lost to Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a key flip for Democrats.

In Georgia, Trump backed Senate candidate Herschel Walker is headed to a runoff Dec. 6 against incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, D. That happened as Gov. Brian Kemp handily won his reelection. The vote counts indicate some Georgians voted for Kemp, but switched to Warnock in the Senate race.

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had warned it would be difficult for Republicans to win back the Senate.

“There’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Senate races are just different, they’re statewide. Candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome. Right now we have a 50/50 Senate and a 50/50 country,” McConnell said in August. 

Trump candidates also lost governors races in Michigan, Maryland, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Trump is part of the reason the red wave did not come to fruition.

“I think Trump is kind of a drag on our ticket. I think Donald Trump gives us problems politically,” Ryan told WISN.

Ryan told the station if Trump runs, he won’t get the nomination. But he added if Trump is nominated, Republicans are more likely to lose. That’s a big difference from Ryan’s view of Trump in 2016 after he won the presidential election.

“Many of our fellow citizens feel alienated and have lost faith in our core institutions. They don’t feel heard and they don’t feel represented by those in office. But Donald Trump heard a voice out in this country that no one else heard,” Ryan, House speaker at the time, said the day after the 2016 election. 

AP contributed to this report