By David Catanese, McClatchy Washington Bureau The Tribune Content Agency

WASHINGTON - Mitch McConnell celebrated a new incoming GOP majority on Wednesday, after Republican candidates overperformed polls in key Senate races across the country in the 2024 election.

The outgoing GOP leader, who will relinquish that title in the coming days, will leave his successor with 52 to 54 Senate Republicans, depending on how the remaining races are called.

Republicans converted new seats in West Virginia, Ohio and Montana and are still competing in contests in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada that have yet to be called.

"It was a hell of a good day," McConnell told reporters inside the Capitol.

Kentucky's senior senator said the most gratifying part of the red wave in the Senate was that it will allow the filibuster - the mechanism requiring 60 votes to approve major policy - to stand.

"I think the filibuster is very secure," he said.

The Senate GOP leader, who has had a tumultuous relationship with President-elect Donald Trump, congratulated his campaign but did not address several follow-up questions about a new Trump era in Washington.

He would not say he stood by his remarks in a recent biography in which he called Trump "a stupid narcissist."

"I'm not here to do a book review this morning," he replied.

He dodged a question about whether Trump could be depended on to defend U.S. allies from aggressors abroad.

"I'm here this morning to talk about the election, and I'll confine it to that," McConnell answered.

And he would not address whether he thought Elon Musk and Robert Kennedy Jr. would be appropriate advisers in the second Trump administration.

"I'm not going to get into that subject," McConnell said.

With a comfortable Republican Senate majority, Trump will likely be able to attain swift confirmation of his Cabinet appointees and pursue his most unorthodox policy ideas.

But soon McConnell won't be the point person to how Senate Republicans will respond.

Senate Republicans' have set the private vote for their leader for Nov. 13, according to reports.

The race is between Sens. John Thune, John Cornyn and longshot contender Rick Scott.

Last week, McConnell declined to tell The Herald-Leader who he would support.

But on Wednesday he said he would spend the bulk of his time as a rank-and-file senator concentrating on defense and foreign policy issues.

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