Gary Peters agrees to run Senate Democrats’ campaign arm for another cycle
David M. Drucker
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Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) has reluctantly agreed to helm the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for another election cycle after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had struggled to find a willing campaign chief for his caucus.
Peters, chairman of the DSCC in the 2022 midterm elections, led Senate Democrats to a surprise pickup of one seat, growing the Democratic majority to 51 seats, despite President Joe Biden’s low job approval ratings and voter concerns about high inflation and rising crime. In withstanding predictions that a Republican wave would sweep Democrats from power on Capitol Hill, Peters earned plaudits from his party, making him the first choice to lead the DSCC into 2024.
“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,” Schumer said in a statement.
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Peters initially resisted Schumer’s effort to recruit him to lead the DSCC for a second consecutive cycle, preferring to exit on top rather than signing up to be his caucus’s campaign chief in an election shaping up as challenging for Senate Democrats. At this early stage, just one seat up for election in 2024 is competitive — and only nominally so: the one in Florida, where Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is running for a second term.
Nearly everywhere else, the Democrats are on defense, including in Michigan, where Peters’s fellow Democrat, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), is retiring. But Peters changed his mind in the end.
“Senate Democrats won big in 2022 by working hard and taking nothing for granted — and that’s the same approach I will bring to our campaigns in 2024,” Peters said in a statement.
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This story was first reported by Politico.