Mitch McConnell chief of staff Josh Holmes to NRSC

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s chief of staff is stepping down from his position to focus exclusively on the GOP leader’s reelection campaign and the national Republican effort to take back the majority next year.

The move, Republicans say, is a reflection of the growing belief — and concern — that 2014 could be the last opportunity in years for the GOP to recapture the Senate after blowing their chance at the majority in the past two election cycles. So McConnell is moving a key aide out of his official Washington office to work entirely on campaign politics.

Continue Reading Text Size -+resetAdvertisementLatest on POLITICO Josh Holmes to NRSC, McConnell campaign Immigration activists arrested Boehner calls for short-term CR Ted Cruz plans anti-Obamacare tour Wild about Larry Poll: Snowden still a 'whistleblower' Josh Holmes, who has run McConnell’s personal office handling Kentucky-centric issues since December 2010, will now work in a dual role as a senior political hand to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and to help advise the GOP leader’s difficult reelection bid in Kentucky. In his new NRSC role, Holmes will work as a conduit to the downtown fundraising community as the GOP seeks to keep pace with Democratic fundraising.

Holmes’s departure comes as two other senior leadership aides have announced they are leaving the Senate, albeit for different reasons. Dave Schiappa, who serves as McConnell’s floor general and is perhaps the most important Senate Republican staffer, is leaving the chamber after nearly three decades of work to take a job as vice president at the Duberstein Group, a downtown lobbying firm. And Rohit Kumar, a top policy aide to the leader who helped negotiate key deals including the fiscal cliff accord, is also stepping down for personal reasons.

“I’m going to be leaving this job as Sen. McConnell’s chief of staff to head to the NRSC and Sen. McConnell’s campaign for the duration of the cycle,” Holmes said in an email. “This may be the best chance for Republicans in a generation to pick up the majority in the Senate, and Leader McConnell wants to ensure that we have all hands on deck.”

The move comes as Republicans are targeting Democratic seats in Montana, South Dakota, Alaska, West Virginia, Louisiana and North Carolina in their bid to pick up the net of six seats to win back the majority. But the GOP still must defend Republican seats in Georgia, where there is a messy GOP primary, and Kentucky, where polls show the race between McConnell and his likely Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, growing increasingly tight. The Democratic firm Public Policy Polling said Grimes was slightly ahead in the race in a survey released Thursday.

But while the GOP may need to run the table to take back the majority in 2014, a look at the map in 2016 and beyond shows an even tougher climb. This means next year could be the 71-year-old McConnell’s last chance at becoming majority leader.

Senior Republican Senate leadership staffers often hold joint political and official roles, so Holmes’s move is somewhat unusual. But it’s not unusual for Holmes. Before becoming chief of staff and while working in a more junior position in McConnell’s office, Holmes left his official role in 2008 and 2010 to work on McConnell’s reelection bid and in the midterm elections.

The 34-year-old Holmes, a long-time GOP operative who worked previously at the Republican National Committee and in other capacities, is expected to return as the leader’s chief of staff after the elections, if McConnell wins. An interim McConnell chief of staff will soon be named, aides said Thursday.

So McConnell is sending his chief of staff to the NRSC, where he will pick candidates that McConnell would like to work with.

McConnell wants to contol who is nominated across the nation. He doens't trust the people in the states to make those decisions themselves.

I hope the people of Kentucky piss Mitch off by choosing Matt Bevin instead of him!

MConnell is running 24/7 negative ads against Bevin on all media here in KY.

The absolute attack hatred MConnell has shown Bevin is illustrative of the fact McConnell is a political Judenrat for Obama and the Democrats.

He would NEVER attack Obama or a Democrat the way he is attacking Bevin. In fact, the Turtle has been nearly SILENT on just about every issue from Benghazi to the IRS scandal.

But for Bevin, all guns, all slander, all malice is directed. McConnell is running as the “Only true Conservative” and slandering Bevin by saying he is a tax cheat and taker of bailouts. He even says Bevin’s not from Kentucky.

The Machine in Lousiville and Frankfort is going to make it difficult if not impossible to Primary the Turtle - which needs to be done.

At least with Democrats we know who the enemy is. McConnell and Boehner simply stab us in the back while pretending to be Conservatives.

We do not need any more traitors in our foxholes.

McConnell has been on top the IRS scandal more than anyone, including more than a year before it became a scandal.

That said...he sure doesn’t do anything for our image of being the party of “white old men.”

‘On top of the IRS Scandal’?????

Yes, I’ll grant you McConnell looks to be in bed with the Ruling Class and the targeting of TEA party and Conservative groups by the IRS.

Of course he seems to me to be more of a bottom than a top, but hey - when it all under the covers and quiet - who knows who’s really sticking it to whom? Based on Mitch’s silence, I’d say he was bent over for Reid, Obama and Boehner - but then again maybe he was on his knees with his mouth full and that would explain why he couldn’t say too much about all these scandals.

I think Issa finally decided to grunt aloud about what we already knew about this - because Talk Radio and Conservatives have been nagging him to get up out of the bed and appoint a special prosecutor to these scandals.

So Issa feigns outrage, McConnell goes back under the covers while his machine goes to war to destroy Matt Bevin because “he’s not a REAL ‘Conservative’.

That is extremely stupid, perverted, and dishonest. You want to tell me with that kind pornographic rant you are a conservative?

And as already stated, McConnell has been one of the most vocal about the IRS scandal - more than a year before the news even broke. He was consistently and regularly sounding the alarm about what was going on all the back to early 2012. The press finally started paying attention in May 2013 when the shoe finally dropped. Your comment that he has been “silent” about it is completely false.

That is extremely stupid, perverted, and dishonest. You want to tell me with that kind of a pornographic rant you are a conservative?

You don’t remember Bob Beckel and the Left going nuts over this ad? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV-0WcPGml0

Okay - so you’re a McConnell campaign stooge and groupie.

Conservatives are going to primary his ass and get the Turtle out of there. He’s useless, unless he;s running cover for Reid and Obama.

I am a Conservative - McConnell is anything but. We’re the ones being raped by his failed opposition leadership. He’s a Ruling Class oligarch in bed with the Democrats and his leadership is beyond pathetic.

Bohner and Mcconnell HAVE ALREADY FUNDED everything Obama has been doing. McConnell has been SILENT on the Conservative calls for them to appoint a Special Prosecutor to the IRS and Benghazi scandals. What about his complicity in the GOP push for Amnesty?? McConnell thinks a soundbite is enough to fool us. His actions speak to his complicity in what Obama and the Democrats have done.

He’s a pathetic failure as an opposition leader. His piss and vinegar is always seemed directed at Conservatives.

We need his sorry ass out of there and I for one will do everything in my power to assist in that effort.

Oh, and Mark Levin nailed the complicity of McConnell and the Democrats with Obama. He also advocates the absolute need to primary him out of the Senate.

Perhaps you think Levin is not a Conservative either.

Exactly what have they done to go after the Dems in these scandals?! There’s been a lot of talking which is why there has been nothing done, they talk and stick together!!!

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.