DSCC chief Gary Peters is obscure no more
David M. Drucker
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Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) has agreed to helm the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for a second consecutive election cycle, cementing his relatively new status as a prominent party leader.
Peters, in the role of DSCC chairman, helped lead the Democratic Party to a pickup of a crucial, single Senate seat in the 2022 midterm elections, an accomplishment that delivered his party outright control of the chamber. With predictions that Republicans would sweep Democrats from power on Capitol Hill in a red wave fueled by President Joe Biden’s low job approval ratings, it was a surprising victory — perhaps delivered by an even more surprising senator.
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Peters, 64, was elected to the Senate in 2014, succeeding prolific Democrat Carl Levin. Peters spent his first term as an obscure lawmaker, with the senator’s biggest challenge as he entered his 2020 reelection bid proving to Michigan voters that he had actually accomplished something during his first six years in office. Whether Peters had, or had not, gotten things done was a major pivot point in his campaign versus now-Rep. John James (R-MI).
“There is a real choice in this race: Gary, who has a strong record of actually getting things done for Michigan, and John James, a failed politician who has spent most of the last year fundraising out of state,” Democratic operative Elena Kuhn, then a spokeswoman for the Michigan Democratic Party, told the Washington Examiner in June 2020, arguing in the affirmative.
“Peters has been in office for 30 years, and he’s accomplished very little,” countered Stu Sandler, a Republican consultant who was advising James’s 2020 Senate campaign. “This race is about John James right now because of all of his accomplishments. There’s no examination of Peters and his lack of accomplishments.”
Peters edged out James by 1.7 percentage points and is not up for reelection until 2026, while James was elected to represent Michigan’s 10th Congressional District just last year. Whatever the circumstances and issues that dominate Peters’s next campaign, obscurity and the scope of his accomplishments in Washington are unlikely to be among them.
On Monday, it was announced the Michigander would serve another two years as DSCC chairman. The post will keep Peters in the national media spotlight and front and center with grassroots and wealthy donors as the point man in charge of preserving the Democratic Party’s 51-seat Senate majority in 2024 in what appears to be a politically challenging cycle for his party.
Considering the success Peters enjoyed in 2022 amid predictions that a Republican wave would sweep Democrats from power on Capitol Hill, appreciation for Peters is likely to grow for his willingness to take on this difficult task. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) tried in vain to find a successor to Peters for this cycle, meeting stiff resistance. Peters, who also initially told Schumer “no,” finally answered the call.
“Gary is a battle tested, proven winner whose hard work led Senate Democrats to defy the political odds and to one of our best midterm results in recent history. Under his leadership we will continue our campaign victories in 2024,” Schumer said in a statement. No incumbent Democratic senator lost reelection in November, a feat not achieved in decades, while Democrats flipped one Republican-held seat — in Pennsylvania.
Democrats this cycle are defending 23 Senate seats, three of which sit in ruby-red states the Republican presidential nominee is likely to carry in the general election and five of which sit in purple battlegrounds.
Only 10 GOP-held seats are up for election in 2024, and just one of them sits in a state, Florida, that presents the possibility of being nominally competitive in a presidential contest. In another fresh hurdle for Democrats, they have already suffered one significant retirement. Last week, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) announced she would retire next year rather than seek a fifth term. The Republicans are gloating.
“Congratulation[s] to Gary Peters on securing the worst job in Washington. He has his work cut out for him!” Maggie Abboud, spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement.
Perhaps conceding the enormity of the assignment and looking to ease the burden, Peters is going to be aided in running the DSCC by two of his colleagues who will serve as committee vice chairs: Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN). Both Democrats were among the senators whom Schumer attempted to gauge interest in leading the DSCC, and the majority leader is referring to them and Peters collectively as the party’s “dream team.”
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Peters, meanwhile, is vowing to employ the same strategy in 2024 as the one he employed to defy the political odds in November 2022.
“Alongside Tina and Alex, I look forward to protecting and strengthening our Democratic majority, so that we can continue standing up for hard working Americans in the Senate and fighting back against Republicans’ chaotic, dangerous agenda,” Peters said in a statement.