Brutal start to the week for Chuck Schumer: Multiple mainstream outlets pulled back the curtain this morning on the proxy war consuming Senate Democrat primaries as Schumer’s hand-picked candidates struggle to fend off Bernie Sanders-backed progressives across the map.
Punchbowl and Puck News point out that Schumer-backed candidates — including Janet Mills in Maine, Haley Stevens in Michigan, and Josh Turek in Iowa — are trailing their more radical opponents in key battleground states. Meanwhile, even Democrat incumbents like Jon Ossoff routinely dodge questions about their confidence in Schumer’s leadership.
“Chuck Schumer’s hand-picked candidates are flailing, and his own party is openly rebelling against him. While Senate Democrats are consumed by their internal proxy war, Senate Republicans are united behind lowering costs, securing the border, and defending our majority,” said NRSC National Press Secretary Bernadette Breslin.
Read more below.
From Punchbowl:
“ . . . Schumer’s preferred candidates are locked in competitive primaries and failing to break ahead in the polls.”
. . .
“In Maine, Gov. Janet Mills is flailing as progressive Graham Platner builds up a formidable lead. In Michigan, Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens is in a three-way race with state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and former health official Abdul El-Sayed. And in Iowa, state Rep. Josh Turek is running neck-and-neck with the more progressive state Sen. Zach Wahls.
“Adding to the drama: Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and other progressive senators are endorsing and campaigning against Schumer’s preferred candidates in these races.”
From Puck News:
“The disconnect has contributed to a sense that Schumer, 75, is out of step with the energy in his party. Progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are on the opposite side of him in many endorsements. In fact, support for Schumer has become a litmus test for many candidates, and a way to distinguish themselves from primary competitors. Platner in Maine, Zach Wahls in Iowa, and Mallory McMorrow in Michigan have all said explicitly that they would not back Schumer as leader. Juliana Stratton, who won the Illinois Senate primary, said the same. And even Rep. Seth Moulton, who is running against Sen. Ed Markey in Massachusetts, said he would back someone else as leader. “One of the first questions candidates are being asked is if they’re going to support Schumer,” one Democratic fundraiser told me. For many, the answer is no.”
“Last spring, at a fundraiser for Sen. Jon Ossoff in New York City, the telegenic Georgia Democrat was asked by one of the 40 deep-pocketed donors in the room if Chuck Schumer would still be Senate leader after the midterms. Ossoff evaded the question, according to a person who attended the event—but it was an early sign that Democratic donors were dissatisfied with party leadership. A year later, the dissatisfaction is perhaps even more palpable. In the past week, I’ve had conversations with more than half a dozen donors and fundraisers, all of whom spoke to the deep and abiding ambivalence surrounding the party’s leadership.
. . .
“Schumer has made it abundantly clear that he wants Maine Governor Janet Mills, and not oysterman Graham Platner, in the Senate. But last month, two of Schumer’s typically loyal members, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Martin Heinrich, co-hosted a fundraiser for Platner in D.C., a rare act of disobedience. Despite the Marine Corps veteran’s regrettable Nazi tattoos and offensive internet posts, Platner is currently sailing to victory over Mills, whom Schumer personally recruited. Schumer’s candidates in three other Senate races—Haley Stevens in Michigan, Angie Craig in Minnesota, and Josh Turek in Iowa—aren’t on an obvious winning track, either.
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