Dem
51
GOP
49
Even if Kamala Harris wins, she will be completely stymied if Republicans control the Senate. Not only will she not get any legislation passed, but the new Senate Majority Leader will surely demand veto power over every appointment from secretary of state down to deputy assistant janitor at Number One Observatory Circle. The DSCC knows this, of course, and has plenty of cash to try to prevent that from happening. Yesterday it began a blitz of exceedingly negative ads in four must-win states.
In Pennsylvania, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) is being challenged by Connecticut resident Dave McCormick. In 2022, McCormick tried to get the Republican nomination but lost to New Jersey resident and crudité gourmet Mehmet Oz, who then went on to be crushed by now-Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA). McCormick is back for another round because the NRSC couldn't find anyone in Pennsylvania who could self-finance the campaign. The DSCC is running two ads against McCormick. The first one highlights how he said he would love to ban all abortions, even in the cases of rape and incest. That dovetails well with Kamala Harris' plan to campaign hard on reproductive rights. The second ad talks about how McCormick's firm is now the #1 foreign hedge fund in China and how it has enabled the Chinese military to greatly expand. Here is the abortion ad:
Now onto Wisconsin. The DSCC ad attacks Eric Hovde, another multimillionaire, who is challenging Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). It turns out Hovde lives in the good life in California. Not only that, but the Orange County, CA, Business Journal has voted him one of the county's most influential residents three years in a row. Now he wants to use his money to buy a Wisconsin Senate seat. Here is another example of an out-of-state millionaire who was recruited to run in a state to which he has tenuous ties because the NRSC is fixated on getting candidates who can pay their own way. Trouble is, voters in most states don't like out-of-staters parachuting in and trying to buy Senate seats:
In Michigan, there is an open Senate seat due to the retirement of Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). The Democrats nominated Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI). Although Slotkin was born in New York City, she grew up on her family's farm in Michigan. She later worked for the CIA in Iraq as an intelligence analyst before coming home to the family's farm in Holly, MI. This time the NRSC found someone who was born in the state, went to school and college there, and served in the state legislature before being elected to the U.S. House. Clearly he is a local, so ads calling him a carpetbagger would never work. The NRSC's choice was former representative Mike Rogers and he just won his primary. The DSCC ad tells how Rogers took millions from Big Pharma and Wall Street while in Congress and voted their way. Then he used that money and bought a $2 million mansion in Florida. It is actually a serious mansion. In Florida mansions are really cheap like that. After he left Congress, he went to work for companies that helped Chinese and Saudi businesses that caused Michiganders and Michigeese to lose jobs to overseas workers. Now Rogers wants to be senator so he can cash in again. Here is that ad:
Moving from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt, the DSCC is working to help elect Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) to the open Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ). She could have served another 30 or 40 years if she had just acted like a normal Democrat. She will be gone on Jan. 3, 2025, and her sense of fashion will be sorely missed. No one else in either chamber comes close, unless you happen to be a fan of flip-flops and hoodies. The Republican is Kari Lake, the pretend governor. She was born in Illinois and grew up in Iowa and went to college there. However, 30 years ago she moved to Arizona and became a television weather anchor. In Arizona, that is easy. Every day you just say: "Tomorrow will be sunny and hot." Later she became a news anchor, so she has a long history in the state and the DSCC ad couldn't accuse her of carpetbaggery. Instead the ad contains a clip from her failed gubernatorial race in which she tells supporters of the much-beloved late John McCain to get the hell out. Ouch. The ad also hits her for wanting to ban all abortions, even in cases of rape and abortion, and for accepting support from white supremacists and Holocaust deniers. Here is the DSCC ad against her:
Two states not included in the first batch of DSCC ads are Montana and Ohio. Expect them soon. In Montana, Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) is being challenged by a wealthy businessman from Minnesota who bought up a huge tract of land where the elk roam and allows in only hunters who pay him a goodly price to shoot elk. Elk hunting is a big deal in Montana. In Ohio, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is being challenged by very Trumpy and very wealthy Mercedes Benz dealer Bernie Moreno. Moreno may have once placed an ad on a gay dating site looking for young men for fun, although he claims someone hacked his account and placed the ad in his name and without his knowledge. The Montana ad is surely going to follow the pattern of the Pennsylvania and Wisconsin ads. The Ohio ad may not because although Moreno was born in Colombia and grew up in Florida, he has lived in Ohio for many years now. (V)