Spicer says he’s ‘absolutely’ concerned about Kansas Senate race

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Monday said he is “absolutely” concerned about Republicans losing the Kansas Senate race, which election handicappers say could flip in favor of the Democrats.

NewsNation’s “The Hill” host Blake Burman asked Spicer if he had any worry that Republicans could lose the Kansas Senate seat helmed by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kans.), with Democrat Adam Hamilton eyeing to win his seat.

“Absolutely. Absolutely,” Spicer replied. “In fact, when I had Tim Scott, the senator from South Carolina, who’s chairman of the Republican Senatorial Committee, on my show on Friday, I ended the interview very Blake Berman-esque.”

“And I said, ‘Senator, if Trump calls you and says, I can only go to three states, what are they?'” Spicer continued. “And he mentioned Alaska, where Trump was already going. And then he said Kansas. And I said, ‘Really?’ And I think he realized when he admitted that Kansas would be on that list, what that meant, and there’s no question Kansas on the list.”

Spicer added that he predicts Kansas, Alaska and Iowa “will all come home” for Republicans. He then predicted that the GOP could lose five to seven seats in the House.

“Again, 22 days out, if we can get our numbers to perform better, get some of these low-propensity voters that are Trump supporters that don’t generally vote in midterms, and we’ve had this problem the last three midterms,” he said. “If we can do something to turn them out and make the case as to why what the Democrats are doing is utterly extreme, and we’ll take this country in a very different direction, I think that we can pull this over the finish line.”

The Cook Political Report shows the race between Marshall and Hamilton as a toss-up. But it still gives Marshall the advantage by 8 points.

The election handicapper cited Hamilton’s performance in the race as being more of a moderate voice and that support gained by President Trump has eroded due to struggles with agriculture over rising fuel and fertilizer costs, which have soared in the months after the Iran war began.

Hamilton has also received several high-profile endorsements , including from former Kansas Govs. Mike Hayden (R) and Bill Graves (R).

But he has also received scrutiny over his handling of a child sexual abuse scandal at his church. Meanwhile, Marshall has faced pushback scrutiny over his handling of taxpayer funds and for suing hundreds of patients over medical debt.

Aggregate polling from The Hill’s election partner Decision Desk HQ shows Marshall with a 65 percent probability of winning compared to the 35 percent probability for Hamilton.

Were Hamilton to win, he would be the first Democrat elected by Kansans to the Senate since former Sen. George McGill (D-Kan.) in 1932.