Balance of power: Senate GOP's campaign chair cautiously optimistic about retaking majority in 2024 elections

Senate Republican campaign chief Steve Daines is tempering any talk of a red wave this autumn leading to a large GOP majority in the chamber.

"I want 51. That’s the majority," the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) told Fox News Digital this week when asked what he's aiming for in November's elections.

Democrats control the U.S. Senate, 51-49, but Republicans are looking at a favorable Senate map this year, with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs.

Three of those seats are in red states that former President Trump carried in 2020 — Ohio, Montana and West Virginia, where Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin is not running for re-election.

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"The first state that we know that we’re going to win at this point is West Virginia," Danies said. "There’s one pickup seat right there."

Five more Democrat-held seats are in key general election battleground states. Democrats are also defending an open seat in blue Maryland, where popular former two-term Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is running for the Senate.

"We like where Larry’s at. We know that’s going to be a tough race because Maryland is a blue state, but it’s a Hogan state first and foremost," Daines argued.

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While the map favors the GOP, Daines, the junior senator from Montana, is on the same page as longtime Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who also appears to be pouring cold water on hopes of sweeping victories.

And he's striking a very different tone than his predecessor, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida.

Scott predicted a 55-seat majority would come out of the 2022 midterms, but he fell far short as Republicans faced ballot