Mitch McConnell has been my Senator for all 18 years of my life. The McConnell I know is very calculated and doesn’t make a single move without thinking of the broader implications. That is why I, unlike many, was completely shocked when McConnell announced that the Senate would refuse to vote for a nominee to the Supreme Court in the wake of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death.

Unlike many senators, Mitch McConnell has never expressed interest in running for President and has instead spent decades climbing his way to the Majority Leader’s chair. On November 4th, 2014, the stars appeared to have aligned perfectly for McConnell, when Republicans won races across the country to sweep them to a slim majority in the Senate. Mitch McConnell is acting carelessly and in doing so risks throwing away the Republican majority after just one term.

Of the 34 Senate elections scheduled for this year, only eight of them are deemed to be competitive. To understand why Republicans are more vulnerable this time around, one would have to take a look at the map as a whole. The eight states that I am referring to are Nevada, Colorado (held by Democrats), Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Hampshire, Illinois, and Wisconsin (currently held by Republicans). What makes these races interesting is the fact that President Obama carried every single one of them in both 2008 and 2012. In 2016, Democrats only need to pick up four seats (assuming a Democrat is elected President, in which case the makeup becomes 50-50 and the Vice President decides the majority) or five seats, assuming the GOP performs a miracle and fixes the disastrous image they have created for themselves.

With that in mind, Mitch McConnell is playing a dangerous game when it comes to increasing polarization in Washington. He is "single-handedly" making the Republican Senate the face of obstruction, giving the Democrats a message that could do extraordinarily well in the traditionally purple states. McConnell is essentially handing Democrats this election on a silver golden platter, as initial polling suggests that outright refusal to even consider a new Supreme Court nominee significantly hurts the Republican party in competitive Senate races across the country.

Public Policy Polling conducted surveys in four of these competitive states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin. These polls found that strong majorities in each of the states favor the Senate considering the President’s nominee this year, with voters willing to turn away from the candidate based on the hyper-partisanship being illustrated.

By refusing to consider the President’s Supreme Court nominee, Mitch McConnell effectively places the Supreme Court on the ballot in a Presidential election year in which Democrats are more likely to vote. Democrats have the opportunity to take this clear cut example of gridlock provided by the Republicans and stop obstructionism in its tracks. Senator McConnell — at this rate you can kiss the Majority Leader’s chair goodbye and you have no one to blame but yourself.