The new mission of Senator Tim Scott, Trump ally, to help the new president: “increase the majority”

EXCLUSIVE – The new chairman of the Senate Republican campaign committee says his plan for the 2026 elections is simple: “increase the majority.”

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, after his fellow Republican lawmakers in the Senate chose him to chair the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the next two years, told reporters that his “passion” is making sure that President-elect Trump “doesn’t have four years in office after two years with a Republican majority in the Senate.”

In his first interview after being elected president of the NRSC, Scott told Fox News Digital this week that “what we’re going to do is defend the seats that we have and expand the map so that we can increase the majority that the party brings us”. Trump victory.”

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Republicans regained control of the Senate in last week’s elections, ending four years of majority control by Democrats.

And it’s expected that once the state’s mandatory recount is completed in Pennsylvania’s Senate race — where GOP challenger Dave McCormick leads Democratic Sen. Bob Casey by about 25,000 votes — Republicans will hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate in January.

While not as favorable as the 2024 Senate map, the 2026 election landscape gives Republicans some opportunities to flip seats.

Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff of Georgia and Gary Peters of Michigan face re-election in two years in key battleground states that Trump flipped last week.

And Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire will be up for reelection in a perennial swing state that Trump lost but outperformed his 2020 performance. In Virginia, where Trump lost by just five points last week, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner will be re-elected.

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“How to enlarge the map,” Scott explained. “Take Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire and Virginia. And if you expand, take a look at New Mexico and Minnesota. President Trump was very competitive in those states.”

But the Republicans will also have to play defense. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is re-elected in a reliably blue state. And Sen. Thom Tills of North Carolina is also serving in 2026, in a battleground state that Trump narrowly won.

Scott emphasized that “the good news is that as long as Susan Collins is there, I think we have a chance to win. Last time she won by several points. This time she will win by several points. Thom Tillis remaining in North Carolina is so much the better for our party.”

In the 2022 election cycle, when Republicans missed a chance to win back the majority, NRSC Chairman Sen. Rick Scott of Florida was criticized for his hands-off approach during the GOP Senate primaries.

During the last cycle, the outgoing NRSC chairman, Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, became involved in the Republican Senate nomination battles.

When asked if the NRSC would take sides in competitive Republican Senate primaries during his term over the next two years, Scott told Fox News: “I think the best thing we can do is d ‘have a family conversation next year about what we’re planning. we’re going to defend this map and then make the best decisions we can to make sure we get more seats than we currently have.”

“Thank God we’re at 53. I’d like to see 55,” Scott added.

When asked if 55 seats was his goal, Scott joked “if it were up to me, we’d have 100 seats.”

Last year, Scott unsuccessfully ran for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, before ending his bid and supporting Trump. The senator was a high-profile Trump surrogate during this year’s election campaign.

In last week’s elections, unlike those in 2016 and 2020, Trump outperformed many Republican Senate candidates.

Scott said he wants Trump to participate as much as possible in the 2026 Senate elections.

“Every day and every way, President Trump, I know you have a full-time job. I’m going to ask you to have two full-time jobs. Let’s expand that map,” Scott emphasized.

He said: “That means every day we need President Trump on the campaign trail, holding fundraisers, talking to people, because this is the party of President Donald J. Trump, and we need to make sure we expand it, from man to man. movement. We need him to do it.

A large part of Scott’s duties as NRSC president will be fundraising. The senator was a top Republican fundraiser during the 2022 cycle, when he easily won re-election in the red state of South Carolina.

“We need to have more resources than we have in the past to be competitive in states where we can win. I think we can win in more states than ever before. President Donald Trump has actually given us a big margin to win. It’s our responsibility to have the resources to win these seats,” Scott said.

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The rival Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was chaired in the 2022 and 2024 cycles by Peters, who will not seek a third term as he is up for re-election in Michigan.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who easily won re-election last week in the blue state of New York, is bidding to chair the DSCC. Senate Democrats will hold their leadership elections later this year.

David Bergstein, DSCC communications director for the last two election cycles, noted that “in a difficult political environment, Democrats made history. We won several elections in states Trump won. We significantly outperformed the presidential results. For the first time in more than a decade, Senate Democrats won multiple elections in states won by the opposing party’s presidential candidate.

“The outcome of this cycle puts Senate Democrats in the strongest possible position to reclaim the majority in 2026,” Bergstein touted.