Chuck Schumer Says Kamala Harris’ Momentum Expands Senate Map for Democrats

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer believes the newfound energy around Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy offers Democrats a better chance at keeping and perhaps growing their majority in the upper chamber this November.
Coming off his address to the Democratic National Convention, where the New Yorker contrasted the legislative successes under Harris’ vice presidency with the “dark night of Trump’s American carnage,” Schumer spoke to group of reporters about his downballot hopes for 2024.
“Our candidates are universally ahead,” Schumer said in response to a question from Newsweek. “There were a lot of naysayers two years ago. They said, ‘Oh, you’re gonna lose the Senate three, four seats.’ I said, ‘We’re gonna keep the Senate, maybe pick up,’ and I say the same thing.”
Schumer said President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill’s investments in things like bridges, high-speed rail and broadband resonates with voters in rural areas, where Democrats have been less competitive in recent years, offering the party new opportunities to sway swing voters.
However, while Schumer has been touting his rosy prediction for some time now, he cited the energy surrounding Harris as a spark of new momentum that could allow his party to secure a governing trifecta.
“I have been to every convention since the one in San Francisco in 1984,” he said. “I have never been to a convention where people are more excited, more intent on winning and more unified. It’s exhilarating.”
Despite the newfound unity, Democrats still face a precarious path to keeping the majority. The party will lose its seat representing West Virginia with the retirement of Senator Joe Manchin. Red state Democrats Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jon Tester of Montana must defy Donald Trump’s popularity in their states to cling on to office.
Additionally, Democrats must defend seats in the swing states of Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. With North Carolina’s two Republican-held seats out of cycle this election, Senators Rick Scott of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas are seen as the most endangered Republicans this cycle.
“We are confident in our odds of retaking the majority,” Mike Berg, communications director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told Newsweek. “Chuck Schumer is lying when he says Florida and Texas are in play. Ted Cruz and Rick Scott are strong incumbents and Chuck Schumer knows it, which is why he is not spending a penny on either state.”
Florida—once a proverbial swing state—has grown increasingly red in wake of Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement but nonetheless offers several metropolitan centers where Democrats remain competitive. While Texas has become bluer in its cities and suburbs, its large rural population continues to present a challenge to the left.
Doug Beck, Missouri Senate minority leader and a Democratic delegate for the state, offered advice on how Democrats can bridge the rural-urban divide and boost their competitiveness in states like his own.
While Missouri is generally considered deep red today, it once—like Florida—stood as a presidential bellwether and had elected Democrats statewide up until Trump’s presidency. And, despite its red hue, Missouri bucked the Republican Party’s “Right to Work” laws—which restrict union organizing—in a 2018 ballot measure.
Beck noted that Missouri will vote on another ballot measure, this time to enshrine abortion access into its constitution, this election. He said that if candidates in traditional Republican strongholds can demonstrate their commitments to freedom, working people and policies that benefit them, Democrats can chip away at the GOP’s dominance in rural America.
“Missourians have a tendency to vote for these issues that are basically Democratic policy issues when it’s a single issue by itself,” Beck told Newsweek. “We think over time, we’re gonna prove ourselves, that we’re good for these things, and we’re [going to] win, and I think we’re gonna win this November.”
Update 08/21/24, 2:26 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Mike Berg.