Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says Republican senators on the ballot in 2020 can attract support from suburban voters, especially women, by portraying themselves as a firewall against Democratic policies.

“We all know why it happened,” the Kentucky Republican said of the electoral shifts that enabled Democrats to win control of the House in 2018. “We got crushed in the suburbs. We lost college graduates and women in the suburbs, which led in the House to losses in suburban Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Charleston, South Carolina, Philadelphia.”

“We’re determined not to lose women, certainly not by 19 points, and college graduates, in our Senate races, and I don’t think we will,” McConnell said, speaking with a small group of print reporters in the Senate’s Strom Thurmond Room after the last floor votes before a two-week recess.

“I think we have to correct what was clearly on full display in ’18, which was the loss of support among women and college graduates, and I think that’s correctable by Republican Senate candidates,” McConnell said. “I think it’s essential to correct it in our races, in the places that I mentioned, and probably other places as well. There’s no good reason for your typical suburban resident to be threatened by this Republican Senate.”

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