Now that the presidential race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is virtually set, both parties are turning their attention to the Senate, which will play such a role in pushing through or blocking the next president’s agenda, and above all will help determine the direction of the Supreme Court for a generation. On the Democratic side, the Democratic National Committee and state parties in eight battleground states are using money raised through the Hillary Victory Fund to set up coordinated campaigns:
The DNC has hired a few hundred field staffers and expects to bring on more organizers in the coming months. Many will be shifting over from working on the presidential campaigns of Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who recently laid off hundreds of field staffers. [...]
The DNC is using the Clinton fund to build up state organizations in Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Six of the eight states have Republican Senate incumbents and all of the states will be targets for Clinton against Republican Donald Trump. The states also were the key battlegrounds of the 2012 campaign between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
The early Democratic organizing effort will be needed. With the unpalatable Trump at the top of the ticket, many big Republican donors are focusing on the Senate. The Koch brothers’ network has already spent $12 million on Senate races and has plans for $30 million more. They're not alone:
Republican groups that spent more than $25 million trying to stop Mr. Trump’s march to the nomination are also directing their funds elsewhere. The Club for Growth, which ran a series of negative ads against Mr. Trump, has been spending aggressively in Senate and House races in Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, among other states. (The group is frequently a target of criticism in the stump speeches of Mr. Trump, who calls its members “crooked as hell.”)
The president of the Karl Rove-founded American Crossroads similarly said that “There’s at least uncertainty about what the impact of Trump’s candidacy would be down ticket, and there’s also a sense that investing in the Senate is an important defensive play.”
This is going to be a battle, and it’s a hugely important battle. Again, we’re talking about a Senate (and president) that could have influence far, far beyond the laws it passes, by either cementing the right-wing slant of the Supreme Court or shifting it to be a court that affirms the rights of women and workers and average people over the claims of the likes of Hobby Lobby and Citizens United. Democrats will invest in the Senate to get a governing majority for Hillary Clinton, but Republicans will invest in the Senate because Donald Trump has left them few alternatives. That’s dangerous, and Democrats need to match their determination (or desperation).
Please give $3 to help turn the Senate blue. The future of the Supreme Court depends on it.