Senate Democrats are struggling to find a campaign chief for the upcoming election cycle, as the party’s “pickup opportunities are arguably non-existent,” a report noted.
The Democrats only have a slim 51-seat majority, which means whoever is in the top stop at the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) will have not only need to try to keep the majority but do it in a presidential election year.
The Huffington Post wrote:
The search has become a struggle for reasons both obvious and obscure. The DSCC chair could have to navigate divisive and ideological intraparty fights in both Arizona and California. The growth in online fundraising has made the connections to big donors that come with the job less valuable than in the past. More than half of the party’s senators are up for reelection or are members of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (N.Y.) ever-expanding leadership team.
…No one doubts a senator will eventually take the job, and it’s not unprecedented for the gig to go unfilled for weeks or months after an election. The last time this class of senators was up for reelection in 2018, Democrats eventually turned to then-freshman Sen. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) to lead the organization. While Peters was floated for the job in the days after the 2020 elections, he did not officially take the job until January.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), who will chair the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) through the next election, told the Huffington Post that “It’s a tough map” and that “It’s fully understandable why nobody wants that job.”
In two years, 23 of the 33 Senate seats that are up for reelection are currently held by Democrats or left-leaning independents, and former President Donald Trump won six of those states by at least one in his presidential elections. Some of the most brutal seats the Democrats will have trouble keeping are Sen. Jon Tester’s Montana seat, Sen. Sherrod Brown’s Ohio seat, and Sen. Joe Manchin’s West Virginia seat, where Trump won by 16, 8, and 29 percentage points in 2020.
Huffington Post’s Kevin Robillard acknowledged on Tuesday that Trump’s first presidential election reshaped the political atmosphere for white working-class voters and turned them towards the Republican Party, which could have a significant effect on the Senate races in Montana, Ohio, and West Virginia ,since each state is “dominated” by working class people.
In addition, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (I-AZ) party hop puts another damper on the party looking to minimize losses in 2024. Arizona being a swing state will mean Democrats will more than likely have to spend millions of dollars on protecting Sinema, who is bound to also face multiple primary challengers.
“[The Democrats’] pickup opportunities are arguably non-existent,” Robillard added. “The exposure is such that a bad Democratic year could lock the party out of power in the Senate for the foreseeable future.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.