Chuck Schumer: ‘We’re Going to Take Back the Senate’

Six months ago, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was facing calls to resign as leader after a number of his fellow Democrats voted to join Republicans to end a government shutdown.

But now the Democrat from New York is feeling buoyed by his party’s unity in the latest government funding fight, as well as by President Donald Trump’s worsening political standing, and he’s brimming with confidence about Democrats’ odds of retaking the Senate, seeing as many as eight seats in play in November.

“I feel like we’re going to take back the Senate,” Schumer told NOTUS in an exclusive interview in his Senate office on Tuesday. “If you had to ask me last year, I would have said no.”

Democrats need to win at least four seats to win back the majority in the Senate in November’s midterms — a scenario that looked very difficult even a few months ago. Their odds are seen as best in North Carolina, Ohio, Alaska and Maine. Iowa and Texas are two other battlegrounds that are viewed as possible pickups, depending on Trump’s political standing and Republican voter enthusiasm in November. Some forecasters also see a potential path for an independent candidate to flip a GOP seat in the red state of Nebraska.

Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have faced questions about their recruitment strategy, with some Democrats expressing frustration with the type of older, establishment-backed candidates they’ve rallied around. In the blue state of Maine, for example, Schumer and the DSCC have backed Gov. Janet Mills, who’s badly lagging in the polls behind political newcomer Graham Platner. The large polling gap has persisted even after Mills’ campaign ran several ads attacking Platner over controversial comments he made in the past about women and sexual assault.

Democrats are also dealing with divisive primaries in Michigan and Minnesota, where Schumer has not officially endorsed but where moderates have similarly struggled against progressives.

But Schumer defended his approach to NOTUS, insisting that Democrats have recruited the right kind of candidates to get the job done.

“The candidates are great,” Schumer said. “A whole bunch of our candidates are young, some are old, some are more liberal, some are more moderate. Our North Star is winning the Senate.”

He called Sen. Susan Collins of Maine “very weak” and said her poll numbers “are much worse than they used to be.” He also downplayed Democratic Senate candidates who have said they won’t support him as leader if they get to Washington, such as Platner in Maine and candidates in Michigan and Illinois.

“It does not worry me. My goal is to win the Senate,” Schumer said.

Republicans scoffed at Schumer’s predictions, insisting the battle for control of the Senate is yet to be determined.

“Republicans remain favored to hold the Senate Majority, but we’ve been clear no one can take these competitive races for granted,” said Joanna Rodriguez, communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “That includes Chuck Schumer whose exposed left flank and cratering popularity will end his tenure as Democrats’ leader after the losers he bet on are rejected in November.”

Unlike last year, Schumer has kept Democrats united in denying funding to Trump’s immigration agenda. Democrats haven’t succeeded in getting reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection following the Trump administration’s controversial immigration-enforcement tactics, which has resulted in the ongoing partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. But Schumer argued his party’s stand has left Republicans fighting among each other over how to approve the funding using the more complicated and lengthy process of budget reconciliation. While Senate Republicans are now moving forward with as many as three years of funding for ICE — much larger than they initially wanted approved this year — their path to doing so isn’t a sure thing yet.

“We held firm, and we’ve continued to hold firm,” Schumer said. “Look who’s tied in a knot fighting with each other, twisting and turning to try and find a new way to do this because they won’t do the very simple thing of getting warrants when you knock on someone’s door, having no masks and cooperating with the local authorities. They’re squirming. We’re not.”

For Democrats, the funding fights over the past year — even ones they’ve lost, like trying to extend health-insurance subsidies for people enrolled in the Affordable Care Act — have served a political purpose: contrasting their policies with Republicans and making the issues front and center at the polls in November. The ongoing war with Iran has only exacerbated Republicans’ challenges, with rising gas prices and economic turmoil resulting in some nervous GOP lawmakers calling on Trump to wind down the conflict.

And Democrats plan to keep at it, rolling out a new strategy this week to force weekly votes on ending hostilities in Iran as a way to pressure their Republican counterparts.

“We had a strategy, and we stuck to it all along,” Schumer said. “Sometimes it takes a little while. It’s not that you do one thing in one day and his numbers go down. It’s day after day after day.”

“And it’s not just that we criticize Trump, but we said, ‘We can do it better.’”

This story has been updated with a comment from the NRSC.