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Kevin McLaughlin is returning to the National Republican Senatorial Committee as its new executive director, Chairman Todd Young announced Friday.

McLaughlin was the committee’s deputy executive director for the 2016 cycle, when Young was elected to the Senate in Indiana, and he served as a senior adviser in the 2014 cycle. Like 2016, Republicans are largely on defense in 2020. Twenty-two GOP senators are up for re-election compared to 12 Democrats.

There were plenty of signs that Democrats found success online this election cycle: catchy videos went viral; a burgeoning army of small-dollar donors produced eye-popping fundraising numbers; and voters targeted online showed up at the polls. 

But for some in the party, their digital efforts left much to be desired. Television ads still dominated campaigns, and Republican outside groups outpaced Democrats in digital ad spending. 

President Donald Trump’s campaign team is experimenting in its laboratory with potential nicknames for his potential opponents in the 2020 presidential election.

The president’s trademark campaign tactic from 2016 — the birth year of “Crooked” Hillary Clinton, “Little” Marco Rubio, and “Lyin’” Ted Cruz — became so ubiquitous in his speeches and campaign literature that it spawned an exhaustive Wikipedia list of everyone whose name Trump has manipulated for political gain.

A week after the midterm elections, officials have yet to determine the winners in one Senate contest and 10 House races.

If the 2000 presidential race is an indication, we could be waiting weeks for the outcome of the Florida Senate race as state election personnel recount votes for Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who trailed in the initial tally by less than 15,000 votes to his challenger, GOP Gov. Rick Scott.

Updated Tuesday, 3:44 p.m. | With the midterms — mostly — behind us, attention has shifted to the intraparty leadership elections on Capitol Hill for the House and Senate. 

Here’s a look at the various positions that members of both parties and chambers will be voting on in the coming weeks. 

Updated 11:46 p.m. | Three days after Election Day, two Senate and 11 House races remain uncalled, and if the 2000 presidential race is an indication, we could be waiting weeks for the outcome of one of those Senate races.

A third race in the Senate will be decided later this month when Mississippi votes in a runoff between Tuesday’s top-two finishers.

The Republican National Committee forked over $7 million to the campaign spending arms of the House and Senate as candidates enter the home stretch before the Nov. 6 midterm elections, Politico reported Tuesday.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, the House campaign arm, has spent more than $130 million this cycle, while its Senate counterpart, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has spent nearly $106 million, according to the Federal Election Commission’s online database.

Despite a viral video defending athletes who kneel during the national anthem to protest racial inequality, national buzz about his former punk rock career, and a slew of positive profiles in major media publications, Rep. Beto O’Rourke trailed GOP Sen. Ted Cruz by nearly double digits in a new poll released Thursday.

Cruz, who is seeking a second term in the Senate, outpaced O’Rourke by a 54-45 margin among 730 likely voters in the state in a new poll conducted by Quinnipiac University.

ANALYSIS — I have argued repeatedly that while the House is up for grabs — and indeed likely to flip to the Democrats in November — the Senate is not in play. I now believe that it is, so I must revise and extend my remarks.

Only about three weeks ago, I reiterated my view that Democrats didn’t have a path to a net gain of two Senate seats, which they need for a chamber majority. But a flurry of state and national polls conducted over the past few weeks suggest Democratic prospects have improved noticeably, giving the party a difficult but discernible route for control.