Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) defended Democrats falling short of taking back the Senate majority in last week’s election, and declined to say whether the party made any strategic errors.
During a press conference Tuesday — his first since Election Day — Schumer insisted that the fight for control of the Senate is far from over, citing the upcoming Georgia Senate runoffs on January 5. He added that Democrats ultimately accomplished their goal of defeating President Donald Trump, though the president has refused to concede.
“We are happy, we’ve won the most important election that we face,” Schumer said. “We always said the number one election is of the president and we won. And when it comes to the Senate, it’s not over, at all.”
Going into the Nov. 3 election, control of the Senate was widely viewed as a toss-up, and public polling suggested that Democrats had a slight edge over Republicans to win. While Democrats gained a net seat, they lost races in North Carolina, Iowa and Maine, all rated as toss-ups. In addition, Democrats fell short in red states like South Carolina and Montana, despite star recruits and record-breaking fundraising.
Control of the Senate will now come down to twin run-off races in Georgia, where Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler will take on Rev. Raphael Warnock, and GOP Sen. David Perdue will face Jon Ossoff. If Warnock and Ossoff manage to win those two seats, Democrats will take back the majority with Joe Biden as president.
While Georgia has not elected a Democrat to the Senate in 20 years, Democrats are increasingly hopeful about the Peach State, after Biden is poised to eke out a narrow victory.
“There’s this conventional wisdom that Democrats don’t win runoffs in Georgia,” Schumer said. “That’s not true. There were two runoffs in 2018. Not much Democratic money or effort behind them and each was within 4 percent. So we are working very hard to win Georgia and we believe we have a very good chance of winning.”