Democrats have set their sights on three deep red Senate seats in a longshot attempt to hold on to their Senate majority, Axios reported Friday.
As Montana and Ohio’s Senate races are falling out of reach for the party, Democrats have set their sights on targeting Republican incumbents in Texas, Florida and Nebraska less than 40 days from the election, according to Axios. Despite the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s (DSCC) newly announced ad campaign to unseat GOP senators, polling shows that Texas, Florida and Nebraska will be challenging states to flip.
“Senate Democrats are expanding the map and going on offense,” DSCC Chair Gary Peters said in a press release Thursday. “All cycle long the DSCC has been preparing to take advantage of Sens. Cruz and Scott’s damaged standings in their states — and now our efforts in Texas and Florida are accelerating.”
The DSCC’s multi-million dollar television advertising campaign will focus on “holding Cruz and Scott accountable for their allegedly unpopular records and agenda, according to a press release.
Democratic Sens. John Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio are both falling behind their respective Republican challengers in the polls.
Most recently, Tester is trailing Republican challenger Tim Sheehy by seven points, according to a September poll from Napolitan News, and by six points, according to an AARP poll from August. Brown is also slightly behind Republican opponent Bernie Moreno by two points, according to a Napolitan News poll and an ActiVote survey from September.
“Chuck Schumer and left-wing donors have decided to light millions of dollars on fire in Texas, Florida and Nebraska because Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown are polling so poorly in Ohio,” Philip Letsou, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
In Texas, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is leading his Democratic challenger and current House Rep. Colin Allred by an average of 3.4 points, according to FiveThirtyEight. Texas has consistently elected Republican Senators since the 1990s, and has voted for every GOP presidential candidate since 1980.
Similarly, Florida Sen. Rick Scott holds a 4.5-point lead over former Democratic Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, according to FiveThirtyEight. Florida’s partisan history is slightly more varied than Texas’, with the former governor flipping his senate seat red in 2018.
In Nebraska, Republican Sen. Deb Fischer has held on to an average 3.3-point lead over Democratic candidate Dan Osborn, according to FiveThirtyEight. Nebraska has also elected Republican Senators for the past few election cycles and has voted reliably red since 1968.
“NRSC’s number one priority is helping our incumbent Senators defeat their radical liberal opponents,” Letsou told the DCNF.
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