Chuck Schumer’s got a few problems. His Party hates him. Allies and donors are openly asking if he’s leaving “top recruits” to “twist in the wind.” And voters are rejecting his handpicked candidates in battleground Senate races across the map in states like Iowa, Maine, and Michigan. Even in Minnesota, Schumer’s preferred candidate is losing the woke proxy war to the liberal Lt. Governor.
The stories are piling up, but stay tuned because the first round of these primaries – Iowa on June 2 – is still over 8 weeks away…
State Sen. Zach Wahls tried to characterize his primary rival, state Rep. Josh Turek, as an extension of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. While Schumer has not endorsed in the race, there have been signals that he prefers Turek.
Playing to a crowd unhappy with the influence of big money in politics, Wahls linked Turek to Schumer by noting Turek’s support from VoteVets, an outside spending group that has aligned with Senate Democratic leadership in the past.
“We are talking right now about the impact of corporate PAC money and how that has affected a lot of Iowans in our economy, but right now, there is a dark money super PAC that is currently spending millions of dollars bolstering Rep. Turek’s campaign,” Wahls said at the forum, co-hosted by Progress Iowa and End Citizens United, which advocates for overturning the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that loosened campaign finance restrictions and became a rallying point for Democrats.
“My promise to every single person here watching is this: As your U.S. senator, I will not be there to work for Chuck Schumer or for Donald Trump or the billionaires or the big corporations. I am running for the United States Senate because Iowans deserve a senator who works for us.”
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D) is facing second-guessing and intense pressure to come up with a new political plan in Maine, where his top recruit to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R) has struggled to gain traction even after launching a flurry of attacks against her upstart rival.
Gov. Janet Mills, 78, is just one of several of Schumer’s favored candidates who are struggling to catch fire in Democratic primaries from Iowa to Minnesota to Michigan, raising the prospect that he may need to rally around candidates who have criticized his leadership in blistering terms in the general election…
Operatives close to Schumer have told people in recent months that they believe Platner can’t defeat Collins in a general election, and remain wary of the plethora of deleted internet comments that include insulting police and rural Mainers, insensitive comments about Black people not tipping and more. Platner, a combat veteran, has disavowed many of the comments, saying he was suffering from untreated PTSD when he made them.
“Governor Mills is the strongest candidate to take on Susan Collins, who is increasingly vulnerable and faces record low approval ratings,” said a spokesperson for the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm.
Schumer’s roster has faced some unexpected pushback, some of it tied to frustrations with his tenure as party leader dating back to 2017.
To his supporters, he is a New York scrapper. To his detractors, he’s a meddling symbol of Washington’s gerontocracy who has been in power way too long. National polls show there are roughly twice as many in the latter camp; Schumer’s dismal favorable rating has him a more toxic figure than Trump. Even candidates who aren’t calling for Schumer’s replacement are far from wrapping their arms around the party boss…
Senate Democrats in Washington started the year with a pep in their step. They had recruited a tested Governor to challenge Sen. Susan Collins in Maine. A pragmatist wonk was in the mix to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters in Michigan. A charismatic and centrist paralympian gold medalist was a favorite to be their nominee for the open Iowa seat. A moderate lesbian stepped up to replace a fellow Democrat in Minnesota.
But in each of those four races, things aren’t lining up with Schumer’s initial blueprint.
For Democratic leadership, the stakes could not be higher. Democrats need to net four seats in November to retake the Senate. A loss in any of these primaries by the DSCC’s preferred candidates would put them in an uncomfortable position: explaining to their own base why the party’s instinct to back centrist candidates still makes sense in the Trump era.
In interviews with a dozen Democratic strategists and lawmakers, some folks have expressed frustration that perhaps leadership, specifically Schumer and Gillibrand, may have the wrong strategy about what kind of candidate the Democratic base wants in these primaries.
In cycles past, the DSCC would have been able to clear the field and head off costly competitive primaries, said Amanda Litman, executive director of Run for Something, a PAC that recruits young progressives.
“The fact that these primaries are happening at all tells you that they don’t have the juice anymore,” she said.
The committee wasn’t able to clear the field, she added, “because they have no credibility to prove they can win.”
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