June 19, 2020 Press Releases

DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS: GOP IGNORES TRUMP RE-ELECTION PLEA TO CHINA—GARDNER, DAINES TRY TO GREENWASH CONSERVATION RECORDS—“MCSALLY ABANDONED DREAMERS”

REPUBLICANS IGNORE TRUMP “PLEADING” FOR CHINA TO HELP HIS RE-ELECTION. After a bombshell Washington Post report this week that President Trump reportedly asked Chinese President Xi Jinping last year to help him win the 2020 election, Senate Republicans refused to speak out against Trump “pleading” with China for re-election help. The NRSC sent a 57-page memo to GOP Senate candidates filled with talking points urging them to try and shift blame from Trump’s bungled coronavirus response and instead “attack China.” However, Republicans have failed to hold either China or the president accountable — and after making tough talk on China a key focus of their campaigns, vulnerable senators ignored the president’s reported “pleading” with the leader of the Chinese Communist Party to help him win re-election.

HuffPost: Republicans Running Anti-China Campaigns Shrug Off Trump Seeking China Reelection Help
Arizona Republic: Does Martha McSally, like Donald Trump, now want China’s help getting elected?

GARDNER, DAINES CALLED OUT FOR “ELECTION YEAR PLOY” TO COVER UP “TERRIBLE” CONSERVATION RECORDS. Vulnerable Senators Steve Daines and Cory Gardner got called out for being “new to the fight” to pass a long overdue conservation measure in an attempt to greenwash their abysmal environmental records and save their struggling re-election campaigns. Neither Daines nor Gardner “have particularly notable environmental records” — a major reason why the public sees through this election year gimmick. Both senators have both voted to cut funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and supported appointees who have overseen the largest rollback of protected public lands in U.S. history and dismantled major policies to fight climate change.

HuffPost pointed out that the pair have “support[ed] Trump and his anti-conservation agenda at seemingly every turn.”
A Missoulian columnist called the move “an election year ploy to trick Montanans” and “a charade.”
Colorado Public Radio pointed out that Gardner’s lifetime score with the League of Conservation Voters is 11%.
The San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board called Daines and Gardner’s actions “political desperation.”

ARIZONA REPUBLIC: “MCSALLY ABANDONED DREAMERS IN 2018.” In her last failed run for Senate, Senator Martha McSally supported the Trump administration’s now-failed efforts to end DACA, repeatedly abandoned legislative fixes to give Dreamers certainty, stability, and a pathway to citizenship and indicated that the program “should be ended.” Now, the vulnerable incumbent is claiming she wants to “do what is right.” Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts called out McSally’s flip-flop, writing, “the senator’s view of ‘what is right’ seems to be guided by what she is running for” and that McSally is trying to “rewrite a bit of history.”

RATINGS CHANGE: COOK POLITICAL SHIFTS MONTANA TO TOSS-UP. Cook Political Report moved the Montana Senate race from “Lean Republican” to “Toss Up” — the fifth Republican-held seat to move into the nonpartisan election analyst’s “most competitive” category as Democrats continue to shift and expand the map and put more states in play. Governor Bullock has put Montana in play – the popular two-term governor and former attorney general’s approval rating has risen “exponentially” as he has led Montana through the coronavirus pandemic and has consistently outraised vulnerable incumbent Steve Daines.

This latest ratings change is just another example of the Senate map shifting in Democrats’ direction. The five seats Cook rates as “Toss Up” are all Republican-held and several other GOP-held seats have also shifted in Democrats’ favor.

HICKENLOOPER OUTRAISES GARDNER IN PRE-PRIMARY PERIOD WITH “WHOPPING” $3.7 MILLION, EARNS KEY ENDORSEMENTS. John Hickenlooper raised a record-setting $3.7 million from April 1 to June 10, the most ever for a Colorado Senate candidate during this pre-primary period. The average donation during this fundraising period was $24. Like he has done since he entered the race, Hickenlooper outraised Senator Gardner — this time by over $1.5 million. In addition to his strong fundraising, Hickenlooper earned endorsements this week from the former mayor of Denver Wellington Webb, former state Representative Wilma Webb, and former Congressman John Salazar.

COLLINS LOSES ANOTHER ENDORSEMENT — KING DECLINES TO BACK COLLINS AFTER ENDORSING IN 2014. It’s been another tough week for vulnerable incumbent Senator Susan Collins who lost yet another endorsement from previous election cycles. The vulnerable incumbent’s colleague Senator Angus King declined to endorse Collins for her re-election, despite having backed her in 2014. Collins has already lost endorsements from the League of Conservation Voters, Planned Parenthood, and Everytown for Gun Safety.

DES MOINES REGISTER POLL SHOWS GREENFIELD UP 3, ERNST FAVORABILITY DOWN 22%. A new Des Moines Register poll released last weekend shows Theresa Greenfield leading vulnerable incumbent Joni Ernst. And that isn’t the only “warning sign” for Ernst: she’s also losing women and independent voters to Greenfield. Iowa has steadily moved from a state Republicans took for granted at the start of the cycle to one of their biggest defensive liabilities now, where outside GOP groups are planning to spend more than $20 million—their second largest investment of anywhere in the country.

AFTER RECORD PRIMARY TURNOUT, NEW POLL SHOWS OSSOFF BEATING PERDUE. A new poll this week confirmed once again that “Georgia is in play” in 2020. The poll showed Jon Ossoff leading Senator David Perdue and is the latest in a recent trend of polls that have found Ossoff either leading or statistically tied with the vulnerable incumbent senator. This latest poll follows record-breaking turnout last week –– Democrats had their highest Senate primary turnout ever and outpaced Republicans by thousands of votes despite widespread voter suppression. In recent weeks, nonpartisan election analysts have shifted Georgia in Democrats’ favor, validating Perdue’s grim warning that “the state of Georgia is in play.”

AMERICANS DELAY MEDICAL CARE DUE TO COST WHILE GOP MAKES IT HARDER TO GET COVERAGE. 1.5 million more workers filed for unemployment this week and a new report from the New York Times revealed that many Americans are delaying necessary medical care due to cost. But Mitch McConnell and his caucus are refusing to extend the bipartisan $600 per week boost to unemployment benefits — which has been an essential lifeline for millions of Americans struggling with losing jobs and income — as they “punt” on future relief. And in the middle of a global pandemic, as millions of Americans are newly uninsured, Senate Republicans are plowing forward with their agenda to “terminate” health care and make it harder for Americans who have lost their health insurance to get care.

MONTANA DEMS LAUNCH DISHONESTDAINES.COM. The Montana Democrats launched a new website this week to hold vulnerable incumbent Senator Steve Daines accountable and highlight his toxic record. DishonestDaines.com was created to keep track of Senator Daines’ history misleading Montanans on a number of issues, including his abysmal record on public lands and his history as “China cheerleader.” Read more about the website and Daines’ horrible track record here.

DSCC, DCCC, MINNESOTANS WIN LAWSUIT TO END UNFAIR BALLOT ORDER STATUTE. Minnesota voters, the DSCC, and the DCCC won a lawsuit this week challenging Minnesota’s unconstitutional ballot order statute, which would have placed Democrats last on the ballot, because it creates arbitrary and unconstitutional disadvantages due to a well-documented “position bias.” As a result of this ruling, the Secretary of State will be required to adopt a procedure under which Minnesota’s four current major political parties are assigned, by lot, a single statewide ballot order that governs the appearance of the parties’ candidates. Read more information about the lawsuit here.

WASHINGTON SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP AGAIN BAILS OUT WEAK INCUMBENTS WHO VOTED FOR CORPORATE TAX BREAKS. A Washington special interest group is rushing to give air cover to three of the most vulnerable Republican incumbent senators according to a new report from POLITICO. The corporate interest group’s top political strategist has been increasingly “worried” about losing the Republican Senate majority and now the group is running TV ads boosting Senators Susan Collins, Cory Gardner, and Thom Tillis. These vulnerable senators all voted for the GOP tax bill that gave big corporations a massive tax break while exploding the deficit and leaving working families behind, and pushed to include a massive corporate “slush fund” with no oversight in a recent coronavirus aid package.

BACKLASH AFTER CORNYN’S TONE-DEAF COMMENTS ON SYSTEMIC RACISM. Senator John Conryn insisted this week that systemic racism doesn’t exist in law enforcement and earned some rightfully critical coverage for his tone-deaf comments. Check out some of the coverage below: