Democrats are desperate to retake control of the US Senate in 2020.
But Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer just got news that could make that impossible.
And he was left stunned by a betrayal he never thought would happen.
When Democrats retook control of the House of Representatives in 2018, they immediately turned their attention towards the Senate and White House.
Flipping both while holding the House in 2020 would give them control over all three aspects of Congress and the executive branch in Washington DC, something they haven’t had since 2009.
But there’s a problem.
Not only do they have to defeat Donald Trump in 2020, but they also have to flip several key swing states to retake control of the Senate.
And the only way that can happen is if they recruit top candidates that stand a chance of winning.
Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, has spent the past year trying to recruit strong candidates to run for Senate next year, but most of his attempts have fallen through.
And now, he just got smacked with another betrayal he never saw coming.
Politico reports, “Top Democrats in Montana and Washington are really excited about Gov. Steve Bullock running — for the Senate, not the presidency. The Montana governor’s seemingly quixotic presidential run comes as nearly everyone in the party is begging him to challenge GOP Sen. Steve Daines and transform the 2020 Senate map.”
Governor Bullock running for Senate could tip the scales in favor of Schumer in the 2020 elections. According to Politico, “Unlike any other Democratic candidate in the country, Bullock could make a virtually unwinnable Senate race competitive and give the party a real shot at knocking off a GOP incumbent and getting closer to a Senate majority.”
The problem, of course, is that Bullock just announced he will be running for president rather than Senate.
And that decision left top Democrats in Washington stunned.
“Bullock has been unequivocal in shrugging off the Senate recruitment, which has included conversations with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Democratic senators. He doesn’t want to be one senator of 100, people who know him say, and fashions himself an executive, not a legislator,” adds Politico.
Bullock’s odds of becoming president aren’t that great.
He’s hardly known at all outside of Montana, which he currently serves as Governor of.
And he’s jumped into a field of over 20 other Democratic candidates in what will likely be the most brutal primary race in history.
But he’s made it clear he doesn’t want to run for Senate, despite the fact that it would make Schumer’s work of retaking control of Congress much easier if he did.
And that, in turn, has left Democrats without a clear path to retaking control of the Senate next year, whether or not they defeat Donald Trump for control of the presidency.
“His answer on this question has been consistent and it is the same today. Gov. Bullock is not running for Senate,” said Galia Slayen, a spokeswoman for Bullock.
And those two sentences read like knives in the back for Schumer.
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