Last week, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer made a deal with the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, to allow 15 judges to pass through via unanimous consent, allowing the chamber to effectively shut down for August. Activists, us included, were not happy—why not send Red State Democrats home to campaign, while Blue state Democrats forced Republicans to fight for every single one of those judges? Our thinking was, don’t give up anything without a fight. Don’t gift Republicans with easy judges.
Since then, I spoke to a Senate source (not in leadership) who shed more light on the strategy. And it goes like this:
Republicans only got as many judges as they would have otherwise gotten if Democrats had stuck around and fought. The math looks like this: 15 judges times 30 hours (and those would have to be talking filibusters) equals 450 hours. That is just under 19 days, or about four weeks of actual Senate work.
Had Democrats stuck around, the GOP would’ve gotten 15 judges. Under this deal, the GOP gets 15 judges, but Democrats get to go home and campaign on health care and accountability. (And given the map, it is Democrats playing defense this year.)
That’s why this deal had broad caucus support. It was math.
And now senators can focus on November (not just their in their own states, but helping out colleagues and challengers around the country, like this).
We must also do our own GOTV to maximize our November chances. Find events near you. If you’d rather GOTV from the comfort of your home, Vote Forward is a great option. And there’s also campaigns to support, like our slate of women endorsed candidates!