Chuck Schumer projects confidence as GOP money washes over Senate Democrats– www.politico.com
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EXCERPT:
A tidal wave of Republican money is threatening to soak Democrats in the final stretch of the midterm campaign, and Chuck Schumer has a message for his party: Keep your sheets dry.
While the Senate minority leader warned in an interview Wednesday that they shouldn’t be “overconfident,” he painted a rosy picture where Democrats have the “wind in our sails” and are well positioned to overcome an “almost obscene” GOP funding advantage.
“Here’s how I’d sum up the election: Can enormous amounts of Republican money beat a Democratic enormous advantage in much better candidates and a much better political climate?” Schumer asked in his Capitol Hill office. “I think we win.”
Those assurances are emblematic of the rising confidence many Senate Democrats are now expressing as they prepare to leave for a seven-week recess. After months where a tough GOP-tilted map and a series of nasty primary battles cast a shadow over their battle to retake the majority, some are more openly acknowledging they could return to Washington as victors.
“It certainly feels like it’s going to be a wave election, and not for good reasons,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said in an interview. “This president’s domestic and foreign policy has gone off the rails. People are paying more than ever before for basic necessities like gasoline, and we have the most corrupt White House in the history of the country. So that’s where we are.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he was “increasingly hopeful,” while Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) said Democrats are “in a position to earn the trust of voters across the country, win majorities in both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate.”
Schumer, like most Senate Democrats, is being careful not to predict outright they will flip the chamber. They need to win four seats on net, including several that President Donald Trump won at least once.