One Year Out From Election Day, Senate Democrats Highlight Winning Playbook, “Well-Positioned to Defend Their Majority”

One year out from Election Day, a wave of new reporting highlights that Senate Democrats are heading into 2024 with “battle-tested candidates,” “significant fundraising hauls,” and a “powerful issue [set] to campaign on.” Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are bracing for “messy primaries and GOP candidates that are out of step with voters.”

Here’s what they’re saying: 

Semafor: DSCC memo: Democrats see hope in … Senate map
By Kadia Goba
November 3, 2023

• The DSCC is making its pitch for why they’re feeling good about 2024… highlight[ing] candidate quality, hotly contested Republican primaries, and policy stances on controversial social issues as the path for Senate Democrats to hold onto their majority.

• Democratic incumbents plan to promote their policy wins from the last Congress, underscoring infrastructure improvement in their respective states and lowering the cost of prescription drugs. A history of recruiting poor-quality candidates and nasty primary fights on the Republican side — which many in the GOP blamed for a disappointing midterms — could also contribute to Democratic successes.

• Significant fundraising hauls in competitive states have allowed Democrats to make early investments. Last month, the DSCC announced they’ll open offices in five Senate battleground states while funding on-the-ground operations in Florida and Texas to support challengers running against Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla. and Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

The Messenger: One Year Out, The Battle For The Senate Will Come Down To The Wire — Again
By Matt Holt
November 5, 2023

• Democrats believe that the same dynamics that helped win expand their majority in 2022 — messy primaries and GOP candidates that are out of step with voters — could happen once again. 

• Democratic incumbents have raised globs of money to defend their seats and the party’s candidates are likely to have a financial advantage over their opponents. Their incumbents have regularly over performed at the top of the Democratic ticket in their races. And the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has given Democrats a powerful issue to campaign on in the coming year. 

The Hill: Dem campaign officials lay out ‘stakes of the 2024 election’ to mark a year out 
By Alex Gangitano
November 4, 2023

• Top Democratic campaign officials are laying out the stakes of the 2024 election in a joint statement to mark one year until Election Day…argu[ing] that voters in 2020 and 2022 rejected the GOP agenda and will do it again in 2024. 

• “With so much at stake, we cannot afford to take next year’s election for granted. Our freedom, our democracy, and all of the progress we have made to lower costs for working families, create jobs, rebuild the economy, and take on the existential threats facing our planet are once again on the line and under threat by MAGA extremists,” the officials said.

Washington Examiner: Democrats count on flawed GOP candidates
By Eden Villalovas
November 4, 2023

• In a memo released Friday, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is depending on Republicans with political baggage to help Democratic candidates sail through the election.
    
• Multiple Democrats running for Senate have outraised their Republican opponents in vulnerable states…While fundraising plays a crucial role in elections, the DSCC is relying on the unreliability of candidates like Kari Lake. “These candidates have lost before, are on tape espousing their dangerous views, and bring damaging vulnerabilities to their campaigns,” the memo states.

POLITICO: What the Senate Dem campaign chief thinks about their tough 2024 races
Interview with Madison Fernandez 
November 3, 2023

• Sen. Peters: “What we saw last cycle [is] we had our candidates running on their strengths and contrasting their strengths to the significant weaknesses and faults of their Republican opponents. …Clearly the Republican candidates last cycle were flawed in many ways, oftentimes significant ways. We believe the same dynamic will occur this cycle as well.”
  
  
• Sen. Peters: “When you take national issues, but localize those issues and the impact that they have on people in their state, that can be very successful. …Jon Tester is in a state that votes very heavily Republican — votes for a Republican candidate for president — and yet he’s able to differentiate himself as someone who cares about Montana first and foremost… When you take national issues, but localize those issues and the impact that they have on people in their state, that can be very successful.”

CBS News: DSCC Chair: Trump on the ballot a “huge motivator” for Democrats […] “abortion…a powerful issue” 
Interview with Major Garrett
November 1, 2023

• Sen. Peters: “We know the issue of abortion…[is] a powerful issue to motivate particularly voters who believe that women have a fundamental right to reproductive freedom. It’s going to be on the ballot again next year.”
  
  
• Sen. Peters: “What we saw before in these nasty Republican primaries, [is] often the most extreme candidate is the one that survives that primary. And the contrast between…incumbents that have proven that they fight for their state and deliver for their state versus a candidate who’s going to be flawed in many respects will mean that we’ll be victorious in the end.”
  

SiriusXM POTUS Politics: The Laura Coates Show
Interview with Laura Coates 
October 31, 2023

• Sen. Smith: “We have such a leg up because we have candidates that have proven their ability to run and win. …voters know them and trust them and believe that they have done a really good job. These are pretty battle-tested candidates. …On the other hand, we have a lot of very messy Senate Republican primaries: candidates with a lot of baggage [and] a lot of interparty competition that makes it difficult for them to coalesce around one candidate, and when they do coalesce it tends to be around candidates that are way out of touch, like Kari Lake in Arizona, for example.”
  
  
• Sen. Smith: “What we did in the 2022 elections is we put our money…on the ground in states all across the country. The DSCC was investing in people and programs that were contacting voters one on one… [and] we’re doing that again, of course. …You will see us putting resources on the ground and reaching out to voters of color in Ohio and Wisconsin and Nevada, and making sure that those voters are connected with efforts, and with our campaign from the very beginning and building those efforts.”

• Sen. Smith: “Sometimes candidates try to recreate themselves as they go into another round of elections and…our job is to make sure that that doesn’t happen. And in every single place where we have competitive races, you see the same kind of…dynamic playing out where you’ve got very extreme candidates on the Republican side, and we want to make sure that people know who they are.”

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