Senate Dems’ main super PAC ‘actively thinking’ about spending in Kansas

Por Lisa Kashinsky — POLITICO – TOP Stories

The leaders of Senate Democrats’ flagship super PAC are “actively thinking” about whether to wade into Kansas and other even redder states as the party looks to leverage an increasingly favorable environment ahead of November.

“There’s some good arguments out in not just Kansas, in four or five other places. And we’re not just watching — we’re thinking about ways we might get involved if they stay earnestly competitive,” said JB Poersch, the president of Senate Majority PAC. “We’re actively thinking about what role will we play at that point.”

Poersch also indicated the group may get involved in Texas, though it’s unclear to what extent. Late Thursday, Texas Forever, a new super PAC affiliated with SMP, was registered with the Federal Election Commission.

Poersch’s comments, during a conversation at POLITICO’s office on Thursday, are one of top Democrats’ clearest signals yet about how much they believe the Senate map has shifted in their favor amid voter frustration with the economy and the Trump administration.

Still, Poersch is clear-eyed about the challenges Democrats face in seizing what once was a longshot Senate majority given a tough map.

The party needs to net four seats. Even if they hold Georgia, Michigan and New Hampshire and flip Maine and North Carolina, they’d need to pick up two more seats in the redder turf of Iowa, Ohio, Alaska and Texas — states President Donald Trump won by double digits in 2024. Democrats are being heavily outspent by Republicans on the airwaves in each of those races except Georgia — and are squabbling over where to divvy up their limited resources.

“Things shift. If races get less competitive, where there’s a lot of money, it might free up some money in other places,” Poersch said. “Fundraising continues to be really good. The bad guys have a lot of money. But we still feel like we have options in terms of making choices.”

Here’s more from POLITICO’s chat with Poersch, edited for length and clarity.

What likelihood do you think the Democrats take the Senate at this point?

I’m not going to speculate on what the likelihood is. We have good candidates with a really challenging map. … And we’ve got a very long way to go.

Even starting from a year and a half ago, the whole argument was: ‘Wow, this is a really hard map. It just has to get better day by day.’ And generally it’s been that kind of cycle. But we’ve been to a lot of rodeos, especially in the red states.

Trump’s job is turnout. And he’s got to hope that he can get past [Republicans’] inability to have some kind of galvanizing message. They need to find one in the next five weeks.

And now, it’s not just turnout. They are in danger — moderate Republicans, Republican-slash-independents, they’re starting to see [defections] here rapidly. And they’ve got to have some kind of an answer on it. Let’s see what their October answer for that is.

How are you guys looking at the real reach state of Kansas?

I think it seems competitive. We’re gonna dig in again.

We have to stay open to these possibilities, too — that maybe several of the races start to show themselves in a good place, and maybe there’ll be opportunities in what almost feel like third-tier states. Once you leave that set of four, which Trump won by [low double digits], everything else there was plus-16, plus-18. He won Mississippi by 23 points.

You know, those are challenging. And yet there are some good arguments out in not just Kansas, in four or five other places. And we’re not just watching — we’re thinking about ways we might get involved if they stay earnestly competitive. When I say we’re watching, I don’t know what that means. We’re actively thinking about what role will we play at that point.

How are you approaching the final stretch message-wise?

Emphasizing the economy, corruption. I think that there is still work to do with the positive messaging. And I think our candidates have shown a pretty good flair for making the arguments about bread-and-butter issues and how they’re going to come to Washington and try and press Trump to change his priorities. So we’re still going to be grounded in things that have been working here for a while.

What could happen in the next five weeks that would make things harder for your candidates?

We take the money seriously, and so it forces us to make every dollar count. Strategically, [Republicans’] advantage is the money piece. And they’re trying to make an advantage of blowing up voter protection and making it harder for Americans to vote. There’s work to be done there, too, in making sure that there’s a lot of awareness and people feel safe in this process and that they’re going out there.

What’s your pitch to Democratic donors for what more money can do right now?

Resources help us shore up states. Resources help us potentially expand the map. But mostly, it’s about knowing that if we have a chance to — if you want to win every Senate race, you can. That’s goal one. And goal two of the majority is winning in red states that several of — Texas and Ohio, especially — these are big states, they’re expensive states. You can spend money in these places forever, forever. So resources are still necessary, and we increase our chances if we have the resources.

Besides Republicans’ money advantage, what’s keeping you up at night right now?

That’s enough, isn’t it? It’s been a challenging cycle right from the get-go. … Strategically, I give Leader [Chuck] Schumer a lot of credit. We’ve got the candidates; the resources have been solid, and so’s the strategy. So now we’ve got to finish.

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories