Chuck Schumer’s Iowa problem

Chuck Schumer isn’t on the ballot in Iowa on Tuesday. One Democratic Senate hopeful wants him to be.

State Sen. Zach Wahls is working to make one of the party’s most hotly contested Senate primaries a referendum on the embattled New York Democrat’s leadership in Washington. Brandishing an “Iowans over Insiders” pitch, Wahls has accused his rival, state Rep. Josh Turek, of being beholden to Schumer and slammed him for leaning on PAC money from groups associated with the party apparatus.

“Chuck Schumer is a part of the status quo that has failed Iowans, and Iowans understand that,” Wahls said in an interview. “We need to be honest with them in order to rebuild the trust that the Democratic Party has lost.”

While neither Schumer nor the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have formally endorsed in the race, critics insist Washington insiders’ fingerprints are all over it.

Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who chairs the DSCC, have both maxed out to Turek through their leadership PACs, according to federal campaign finance filings. The DSCC promoted an event benefitting Turek in February. Wahls and his allies have also criticized VoteVets, a group that works to elect Democratic veterans and has historically been aligned with Schumer, for spending nearly $10 million to boost Turek, per tracking firm AdImpact.

A VoteVets spokesperson said the PAC is not coordinating with Schumer, who is barred by campaign finance laws from working directly with super PACs. A spokesperson for Schumer, Allison Biasotti, did not address his role in Iowa directly in a statement, but said that under his leadership, “Senate Democrats are undoubtedly in a stronger position to take back the majority.”

The Iowa brawl carries high stakes for Schumer, whose leadership is being challenged across the Democratic Senate map. His handpicked candidate in Maine, Gov. Janet Mills, struggled mightily before dropping out of the race, paving the way for Schumer-bucking insurgent Graham Platner to seize the nomination next week in spite of a steady drip of politically problematic stories about his personal life and controversial previous comments.

Mills’ meltdown reignited scrutiny of whether Schumer, a powerhouse from a different political era, has the acumen for the moment. And it put a glaring spotlight on Iowa, even though Schumer has kept a lower profile in the race.

Wahls is one of the numerous progressive candidates in contested primaries who have said they won’t back Schumer to run the caucus, wearing their opposition as a badge of honor to win over a base clamoring for its leaders to show more spine against President Donald Trump. They’re being boosted by a cadre of progressive senators who are openly defying Schumer by endorsing against some of his star recruits and perceived picks in critical races — including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who recently stumped for Wahls in Iowa.

Now, Wahls is offering the latest test of how deep Democratic discontent runs — and the potential limits to it. Wahls has said frustration with Schumer is palpable on the campaign trail and that his calls for new leadership earn him applause on the stump. But Wahls has not experienced the same breakout fundraising success as others running in the anti-Schumer lane. As a result, he’s facing a staggering amount of outside spending that he doesn’t have the financial resources to overcome.

Democrats across the country have decidedly mixed views about Schumer, according to new results from The POLITICO Poll: They are pessimistic about Schumer’s leadership. But they’re torn over whether to elevate candidates who push back on the party.

A 47-percent plurality of people who plan to vote Democratic in the midterms say someone other than Schumer should be the caucus’ leader, while only 28 percent say he should keep his role, according to the survey conducted by Public First between May 17 and 19.

However, they’re split on supporting or opposing candidates who disagree with Schumer: 42 percent say they’d like to see candidates “challenge the Democratic leadership, as it needs new ideas,” while 40 percent say they want to see candidates “fall in line with the Democratic leadership in order to defeat Trump.”

Democrats’ dissatisfaction with the Senate leader doesn’t largely influence their voting habits, with more than a third saying they were neither more nor less likely to vote for an anti-Schumer candidate. But the survey reveals fracture points as Democrats attempt to unify ahead of November’s midterms.

Schumer’s allies argue he’s scored major recruiting wins in several states that could swing control of the Senate, including former Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, former Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina and former Rep. Mary Peltola in Alaska. Democrats believe his efforts have helped them expand their map of opportunities and increase their odds of flipping the upper chamber.

Schumer’s team and the DSCC, in statements to POLITICO, both said Democrats have expanded their Senate map under the minority leader’s stewardship and are well positioned to flip control of the chamber.

“Democrats across the country know that winning the Senate runs through recruiting strong candidates, staying focused on beating Republicans, and building the strongest possible map — and Leader Schumer has done exactly that,” Biasotti said.

In Iowa, Turek’s campaign is parrying Wahls’ broadsides by playing up Turek’s in-state support and small-dollar donors. He has a number of local leaders in his corner — including the state’s last Democratic senator, Tom Harkin, who has relationships with both candidates and even officiated Wahls’ wedding.

“Our campaign is grateful to the over 57,000 individuals who have chipped in an average of $33 to support Josh because they know that Iowa needs a U.S. Senator who will fight for working families, not special interests and big corporations. Over 80 Iowa leaders have endorsed Josh because they know that he is the best candidate to defeat Ashley Hinson, who has repeatedly sold out Iowans to benefit her billionaire and corporate backers,” said Hannah Goss, a spokesperson for the Turek campaign.

Turek’s supporters in Iowa suggest that attempts to tie the state representative to the Washington establishment won’t work, given his local bona fides, in-state backing — including from two of his former opponents — and biography. Turek is an Iowa native and former professional wheelchair basketball player. He first ran for the Iowa House of Representatives in 2022, when he defeated a Republican candidate by six votes.

While Wahls has tried to paint Turek as a creature of the establishment, Turek’s allies point out Wahls has spent longer in politics — he was first elected to the state Legislature in 2018 — and served as Senate Democratic leader. They also insist the race does not revolve around Schumer, but rather around which of the two Democrats can win in November against a Trump-backed Republican in a red state that is central to the party’s effort to flip the Senate.

“Nobody here knows Chuck Schumer. Nobody cares that much,” said Sue Dvorsky, a former state party chair who endorsed Turek. “There’s just nothing very ‘insider-y’ about Josh Turek. He didn’t come from any kind of money. He didn’t come from any kind of political family.”

But Wahls is doing his best to drive the wedge ahead of Tuesday’s primary. He is hammering Turek for declining to join him in outright rejecting Schumer for leader (Turek has said he would question any candidate for leader on what they would do for Iowans). He’s pointing to Schumer’s quiet involvement in the race — Schumer’s PAC’s donations and the DSCC promoting a virtual event for Turek — as evidence that Washington insiders want his opponent to win. And he’s attempting to connect the onslaught of advertising from VoteVets to Schumer.

“When we connect the dots for folks that this is directly connected to Rep. Turek’s support of Sen. Schumer, and that is what is kind of behind these ads, people’s eyes go wide,” Wahls said. “They don’t like that at all.”

Wahls’ allies argue VoteVets’ intervention may have tipped the race in Turek’s favor.

VoteVets has become the single biggest spender — more than three times the two campaigns combined — in a primary where the candidates had otherwise been evenly matched in fundraising and cash on hand, per AdImpact. Wahls led publicly available polling of the race through March. But a series of surveys conducted for Turek’s campaign and VoteVets after the PAC went on air to boost him showed the state representative with a double-digit lead.

The glut of spending may prove insurmountable for Wahls — and make it difficult to discern what, if anything, the race says about Democratic voters’ opposition to Schumer.

Turek’s supporters argue he’s simply better positioned to take on likely Republican nominee Ashley Hinson in November — and point to the roster of senators beyond Schumer who’ve endorsed him or contributed to his campaign as evidence.

“He’s the stronger candidate in the primary, and much, much stronger in the general,” said Tom Miller, who served as Iowa attorney general for over 40 years and has endorsed Turek. “The whole idea that the relationship between Josh and Schumer is that important is this race is pretty much nonsense.”

المصدر: Politico