ICYMI: DSCC Chair Sen. Gary Peters Discusses How in 2024, Senate Democrats’ “Battle-Hardened Incumbents” “Will Deploy The Same Winning Playbook From 2022”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT 

National Journal: Senate Democrats look to overcome the odds again in 2024
By Sydney Kashiwagi
November 8, 2023

• [2022] was the first time since 1934 that Democrats did not lose a Senate seat during a midterm election while controlling the White House.
  
  
• Peters says Democrats will deploy the same winning playbook from 2022 by ensuring incumbents have more money than their Republican opponents, focusing on ground operations, and contrasting their candidates’ views with Republicans’ “extreme” positions, particularly on abortion.
  
  
• Democratic leadership says the best bet to defend and potentially expand the majority will rest on candidate quality, top-of-the-ticket races, and abortion policies. 

• “…Having superior candidates that are well funded and running on issues that allow them to contrast with Republicans and having a strong campaign, including aggressive ground operations, will lead to victory. I’m confident we’re going to hold the majority, and I believe that we have a real shot at expanding that majority as well.” 

• “The abortion issue was very powerful in the last cycle as a result of the Dobbs decision. But it will continue to be very powerful in this cycle as well,” Peters said.
  
  
• More than a year after Dobbs, abortion appears to remain an issue that drives turnout. Ohio overwhelmingly supported a ballot measure Tuesday in August that enshrined abortion access rights in the state’s constitution.
  
  
• Democratic leaders say they will not let voters forget about [Republicans’] past positions on abortion. “…The plan from the [National Republican Senatorial Committee] appears to be, ‘It doesn’t matter whether you’ve said it in the past, say something else.’ And it’s safe to say that we’re not going to let them dismiss the record.”

• Tough Republican primaries could also play in Democrats’ favor, as in 2022. …Last cycle, former President Trump boosted more-conservative candidates who ended up losing in the general election. 

• Democrats in the most competitive states this cycle have outraised their Republican counterparts, and contentious Republican primaries are in full swing in states like…Ohio and Michigan. Montana will likely join the list if Rep. Matt Rosendale enters the field against the NRSC’s preferred candidate, Tim Sheehy.

• Kari Lake [is] a MAGA candidate who has denied the results of the 2020 presidential election and has been in an ongoing court battle over the results of her 2022 gubernatorial loss… [and] Democrats plan to remind voters of Lake’s positions during her 2022 bid. “Our job is to make sure they know what her track record is.”
  
  
• Peters spoke with National Journal as the DSCC announced it would spend seven figures to expand its “Republican accountability program” across the 10 battleground states, including Florida and Texas, where the party is on the offensive.
  
  
• “We know that the incumbents in both Texas and in Florida are very weak in their states—the polling numbers are not very strong for either one of those candidates,” Peters said. “You contrast it with … candidates who are raising the most money and putting the organization [together], are doing an outstanding job, and building an operation that we think could ultimately be successful during the general election.”

See also: DSCC Expands Funding For Republican Accountability Staff to Texas and Florida; FACT SHEET: Republican Senate Candidates Are on The Record and on Tape Opposing a Woman’s Right to Make Her Own Health Care Decisions, Will Support a National Abortion Ban.

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