MINNEAPOLIS – Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan sounded confident that the U.S. Senate seat in his home state would remain in Republican hands.
The race between four-term incumbent Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Louisville) and Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford (D-Louisville) is entering the final two months, with McConnell showing a double-digit lead in the latest public polling.

“We feel very good about Sen. McConnell,” Duncan told PolitickerKY.com during a brief interview in Minneapolis. “I think he’s in great shape right now.”

Other races in Duncan’s crosshairs included two contested U.S. House races in the Bluegrass state, in the 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts.

The 3rd District race offers a rematch of the 2006 race that found long-time U.S. Rep. Anne Northup (R-Louisville) unseated by now-incumbent John Yarmuth (D-Louisville).

Duncan said Northup lost that time in part because of “circumstances beyond her control.”

“We have a good shot at that race,” said Duncan.

The last public polling in the district found Northup down by ten points, though her campaign did outraise Yarmuth’s in the second fundraising quarter.

Democrats – including national party chair Howard Dean – were talking up their chance of picking up a seat in Kentucky at their own party’s national convention last week, particularly pointing to the open 2nd Congressional District contest between state Sens. David Boswell (D-Owensboro) and Brett Guthrie (R-Bowling Green).

There, Boswell significantly lags behind Guthrie in fundraising, though the Democrat did show a polling lead in the only survey released to the public for the race thus far.

The 2nd District is currently held by retiring incumbent U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis (R-Cecilia), and Duncan said he thought it would stay in GOP hands.

“I think Brett Guthrie will be able to hold onto the seat,” said Duncan.