DSCC Chair Sen. Peters, Sen. Cortez Masto, and Sen. Rev. Warnock Discuss Importance of Candidate Quality in Senate Races: “We Have Superior Democratic Incumbents and Candidates Running Against Flawed Republican Candidates”

This week at the Democratic National Convention, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee hosted a panel discussion with DSCC Chair Senator Gary Peters, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, and Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock on why candidate quality will “be a deciding factor” in Senate races as “great [Democratic Senate] candidates” run “against Republican candidates who are flawed” and who hold “unpopular positions on issues like abortion.” 

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POLITICO: Senate Democrats’ Hail Mary worked in 2022. Now they’re running it back to try to hold the Senate.
By Steven Shepard
August 21, 2024

• The theme of a Wednesday press conference at a downtown hotel — which featured Democratic Sens. Gary Peters (Mich.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.) and Raphael Warnock (Ga.) — was “candidate quality.” And the message was simple: Republicans’ candidates are “flawed, and in some cases, fundamentally flawed,” as Peters, the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, put it.

• This year, Democrats are highlighting residency questions about GOP nominees in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, along with Republicans holding unpopular positions on issues like abortion.

• “There’s no question that candidate quality was the deciding factor for us last cycle,” Peters said, “and it’s going to be a deciding factor for us again this cycle.”

• “People are paying attention. They are excited. They are coming out,” Cortez Masto said. “And that’s what we need. That’s the Democrats’ strength.”

Roll Call: Senate Democrats argue majority is still in their reach in November
By Mary Ellen McIntire
August 21, 2024

• Senate Democrats…said this week they see similarities between their candidate matchups in November and when they expanded a narrow majority in 2022.

• “We have been very fortunate on the Democratic side,” Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, told reporters on Wednesday. “We’ve had great candidates, great incumbents that are running for reelection or are running…and they are running against Republican candidates who are flawed and in some cases extremely flawed.”

• He pointed to races last year in Pennsylvania, where then-Lt. Gov. John Fetterman defeated television personality Mehmet Oz for an open seat that had been held by a Republican, and in Georgia, where Sen. Raphael Warnock defeated former football star Herschel Walker. Democrats have argued that like Oz, Republican Senate candidates this year including Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania and Eric Hovde in Wisconsin have loose ties to their states.

• “If you look at Republicans’ recruitment for their candidates, they tend to recruit folks who are very wealthy and who can self-finance,” Peters added. “But the problem is they also tend to have fairly tenuous relations with the state that they’re actually running in.”

More from DSCC Chair Peters at the DNC on “Superior Democratic Incumbents and Candidates” “Running Against Flawed Republican Candidates”:

Washington Post
August 22, 2024

• Sen. Peters: What we’ve seen all along in this cycle is candidate quality and the differences between Republican challengers and our Democratic incumbents. Our Democratic incumbents have a proven track record of winning, a proven track record of working for the people in their states, and they’re running against Republicans that are flawed and sometimes highly flawed, and when you stack that up, we’re confident that we’re going to be able to win.

MSNBC: Chris Jansing Reports
August 21, 2024

• Chris Jansing: We’ve seen [abortion] galvanize voters every single time it’s been on the ballot, but how do you translate it? 

• Sen. Peters: Well, it translates very well…And we find when people show up for that vote and are motivated, they tend to vote Democratic, particularly when there’s a clear contrast between the candidates that are there. And given our Democratic candidates have views to make sure they’re enshrining those rights for women, versus Republicans that want to take them away, we always win in that argument. 

SiriusXM: The Briefing with Steve Scully 
August 21, 2024

• Sen Peters: The candidate contrast is that we find Republican candidates are not authentic, and their stories unravel under closer examination. I think there’s some poor recruiting. And they generally recruited candidates who are wealthy, thinking they could put their money into the race and self-fund, but many of them haven’t had any real contact with the state. They live out of state, or they just recently moved in.  

Axios House
August 20, 2024

• Sen. Peters: We’ve got a shot in both Florida and Texas, and those are very real. We have superior incumbents and candidates and deeply flawed Republicans, similar to what we had last cycle. And so you can paint that contrast, and voters are still going in the voting booth. They have to make a decision. They see two individuals on the ballot, and they’ll look at the pluses and minus. 

NBC News: With Senate matchups set, Democrats remain optimistic
By Bridget Bowman
August 21, 2024

• Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a recent interview that he believes his party can hold 50 seats.

• “We have superior Democratic incumbents and candidates running against flawed Republican candidates,” Peters said, adding later that voters “have a choice between two individuals, and they’ll weigh the pluses and minuses on those individuals. And when they do that, we’re confident they’re going to vote for the Democratic Senate candidate.” 

• The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has launched a flurry of ads this month taking aim at GOP candidates’ personal backgrounds, delving into their business dealings and raising questions about their ties to the states they are running in. 

The Hill: Democratic Senate campaign chief ‘encouraged’ by races in Florida, Texas
By Julia Manchester 
August 20, 2024

• Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said Tuesday that he was “encouraged” by the party’s Senate campaigns in Texas and Florida. 

• “I’m very encouraged with what I see in those states,” Peters told reporters at the Democratic National Convention. “We have very strong Democratic candidates.” 

• “We’re already seeing in the polling data a very close race [in Texas],” he continued. “Same thing happening in Florida.”

• “Rick Scott has never won an election by very much to begin with, it’s always a tight race,” Peters said, referring to the incumbent Republican senator. 

See also: ICYMI at the DNC: DSCC Chair Peters Discusses Why Senate Democrats Will “Be Very Successful on Election Day” Against “Highly Flawed Republicans”

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