Schumer's Dems see silver lining in midterm losses

Senate Democrats lost seats in the midterms and face a tough 2020 map — but the party isn’t shifting strategies in order to win back the majority.

By ELANA SCHOR and BURGESS EVERETT 11/10/2018 06:48 AM EST

Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats aren’t changing course, despite all those second-guessing them.

Their vulnerable incumbents were free to ignore liberal orthodoxy over the past two years, but at least three red-state Democrats still went down hard in the midterms. And as 2020 looms, the party faces a steep challenge in clawing back to the Senate majority.

But Democrats are finding only a bright side in Tuesday’s results, and are showing no sign of shifting strategies to try to shore up their performance in states President Donald Trump carried. In fact, they took heart in a GOP that’s “sliding in the suburbs,” as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) put it to reporters in his home state on Friday.

Schumer stayed characteristically sunny this week in his first post-election chat with reporters. He blasted Trump for portraying the GOP’s Senate pickups as offsetting its House losses, but made no new vows to amp up policy fights with the president. And the New York Democrat insisted his party did “much better than expected,” despite having suggested in June that they could pull off a long-shot takeover of the upper chamber.

“Having a Democratic House puts our caucus in a much better position when it comes to both holding the president accountable and getting things done,” Schumer told POLITICO in a statement. “As in the last two years, the secret to our success will be unity.”

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/10/senate-democrats-2020-elections-map-schumer-982420