Still nursing their wounds after last week’s thrashing, Democrats already are grappling with how to defend 10 senators up for reelection in 2018 in states that Donald Trump carried, some resoundingly. Republicans are targeting a quintet of senators from conservative states where Trump walloped Hillary Clinton: Montana, Missouri, Indiana, North Dakota and West Virginia. The GOP could amass a filibuster-proof majority by running the table in those states and other battlegrounds.
To prevent that, Schumer will need to mine his fellow leaders to accommodate vulnerable Democrats with profoundly different ideologies and political circumstances — from Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin, who also was tapped for a leadership spot, to West Virginia’s Manchin, who has gone out of his way to align himself with Trump voters this week. That means appealing to the white working class in some states — and stoking minority and liberal turnout in others.
“People agree with us but didn’t believe in us,” said Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, a liberal member of the caucus. “The left-right spectrum has been scrambled. And so, it’s no doubt we have a daunting map. But I think the way to run in this new environment is with authenticity, with passion, with connectivity.”
The foreboding map, coupled with competing political imperatives for different vulnerable members, has party leaders looking to drive wedges between Trump and Republican leaders in the early going. But ultimately, if Democrats hope to avoid ceding even more power to Republicans in two years, they’ll have to seize back the issues — and voters — that Trump snatched away.
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