On the first day of the Democratic National Convention, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) Chair Sen. Gary Peters discussed the stark contrast between “strong Democratic incumbents and candidates versus” “highly flawed Republicans” and why Senate Democrats are “going to be very successful on Election Day.” Peters also highlighted growing “enthusiasm” for Democratic candidates in states that are offensive opportunities for Democrats, “in places like Texas and Florida, we have weak Republican incumbents who are not polling well, and we have strong Democratic challengers.”
In Case You Missed It At the DNC:
MSNBC: Morning Joe
August 19, 2024
Sen. Peters: The great news is that right now all of our candidates in these states are doing very well. That’s because they’re basically candidate versus candidate contrasts. We have got great Democratic incumbents and candidates versus highly flawed Republicans that are running and that difference is showing up in the polls.
PBS News Hour
August 19, 2024
Sen. Peters: I feel very good that we are going to hold 50 seats. That means making sure the incumbents we have now come back, and where we don’t have an incumbent running in — like in Michigan — to hold that seat, we have a very strong challenger that’s going to be able to win there, Elissa Slotkin. But we can go on the offense. These are tough states, Texas and Florida, but if we look at candidate quality, that is how we have been able to win races in the last cycle. Folks didn’t think we could do what we did last cycle, but we did it. We have very strong incumbents, strong candidates, versus flawed Republicans. Making that kind of contrast can be a big deal. And we are seeing in places like Texas and Florida, we have weak Republican incumbents who are not polling well, and we have strong Democratic challengers. In Florida, we have an abortion referendum on there — abortion rights, which we know the power of that to turn out people. So we believe it is very possible.
CBS Special Coverage America Decides
August 19, 2024
Anne-Marie Green: You mentioned how important it is for Democrats to maintain and grow the margin in the Senate. There are several high-profile down-ballot races that we’re keeping an eye on. How do Democrats plan to retake the Senate?
Sen. Peters: Basically, how we’re going to do that is the same way we were able to hold the majority last cycle, which was very tough, if you recall, folks said, “In the midterm, you’re going to lose seats. There’s no way you’re going to be able to maintain the majority.” We did, and we actually expanded it last cycle, and for two reasons. One: candidate quality. There’s a big gulf in difference of the quality of candidates. We have very strong Democratic incumbents and candidates. The Republicans they’re running against are deeply flawed in many respects. And when you make that contrast, you realize that voters, when they go in to vote for a Senate candidate, are looking at two different individuals with strengths and minuses, and given the flawed Republican candidates that our Democrats are running against, I’m very confident. And then it’s also our ground campaign to make sure we turn out people that are going to support our candidates. We did that last cycle. We had tremendous turnout in all of our battleground states. We’re going to see that again.
CNN with Abby Phillip
August 19, 2024
Abby Phillip: So, Senator Schumer says Democrats will maybe expand their majority. Where is the expansion going to happen?
Sen Peters: I think it’s very, very real to do that, and the two states where we believe we have that shot are Florida and Texas. We’ve got very strong Democratic candidates there against flawed Republican incumbents, and if you look at the enthusiasm, you’re seeing it in Texas, you’re seeing it in Florida.
Fox News Digital
August 19, 2024
Sen. Peters: Our candidates in all of our battleground states have been consistently above their Republican opponent, primarily because of candidate quality. They’re running against, oftentimes seriously flawed Republican candidates…We’re seeing more people are excited about getting out to vote, being engaged in the process, and we’re confident, when they look at the contrast between our Democratic incumbent or candidate versus Republicans that are flawed, we’re going to be very successful on Election Day.
CNN-POLITICO Grill
August 19, 2024
Jonathan Martin: What have you seen in your capacity as chairman of the DSCC? What’s happening in the battleground states for control of the Senate?
Sen. Peters: Senate races are candidate versus candidate races, and we saw that last cycle when I ran the DSCC. You know, we were able to win when no one thought we could win, because we turned them into candidate versus candidate races — try to get the nationalization out of it. And we have strong incumbents, strong candidates running against flawed Republicans, sometimes seriously flawed, and we were making sure that people saw that contrast, because that’s what a campaign is all about. You have a choice when you go in to vote. You don’t have two perfect individuals. You have two human beings with strengths and weaknesses, and our candidates have much greater strengths, and [Republicans] have greater weaknesses. And so you put those two together, we were doing well.
POLITICO:
August 19, 2024
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