Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is trying to steer the Democratic Party back into control of the Senate in the 2020 election.
It’s a longshot bid, political experts said, but Schumer still had a (narrow) path to victory over Republicans.
Had.
In recent days, the plan has all fallen apart for Schumer and his political allies.
Democrats are stinging from three high-profile failures to recruit candidates who they hoped would help reclaim the majority, including Stacey Abrams’ announcement that she would pass up a U.S. Senate run in Georgia.
That decision, announced Tuesday, was a serious blow to Schumer. Abrams was beloved by the mainstream media during her unsuccessful effort to become America’s first black female governor last year. After her loss, Schumer personally — and publicly — urged her to consider challenging GOP Sen. David Perdue in 2020. In a particularly notable move, he tapped her earlier this year to deliver the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
“No,” said Abrams on Tuesday. Her refusal of Schumer follows former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper in spurning the Democratic leaders’ entreaties to take on incumbent Republicans seen as potentially vulnerable.
That’s not the end, either. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock is likely to follow suit in rejecting a Senate run as he considers a potential 2020 presidential campaign.
Also Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne said the freshman would seek re-election next year for her southeast Iowa House seat — not a Senate seat.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Schumer’s campaign organization, had tried persuading Axne to run for U.S. Senate against GOP incumbent Joni Ernst, who will be seeking a second term.
That’s five big losses — and the voters haven’t even spoken yet.
The inability of Schumer to corral well-known candidates underscores how tough Democrats will find their fight to regain control of the Senate next year, a steep climb that sparked glee from Republicans, who hold a 53-47 majority in the chamber.
“Today’s embarrassing recruitment failure is another devastating blow to Chuck Schumer’s dream of a Democratic Senate,” said Jack Pandol, communications director for the Senate Leadership Fund, a group linked dedicated to boosting Republican candidates. “Now that top-tier Democrats in nearly every competitive state have all said no to Chuck Schumer, the picture is becoming clear: Democrats simply do not believe in Schumer’s ability to lead them into the majority.”
If a Democrat wins the White House next year, he or she will need a Senate majority to push through the ambitious agendas that have been pitched to voters. But to claw back power, Democrats will have to take at least three seats from the GOP.
That tricky math for Democrats would have proved easier to navigate with well-known candidates such as Abrams, O’Rourke and Hickenlooper forcing Republicans to play defense and spend money in more states to protect their incumbents.
Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, who runs Senate Republicans’ campaign arm for 2020, remains confident.
“People are pretty happy with the direction, especially of our economy but more generally of our country,” Young recently told The Associated Press.
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The Associated Press contributed to this article