The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is sweating over 2020, Axios' Mike Allen reports, in fear of a "nightmare scenario" that would bring not just a Democratic House and White House, but a flipped Senate as well.
The exodus of House Republicans—19 this cycle are already retiring—and a Senate majority "in serious jeopardy," as well as Donald Trump trailing every major Democratic candidate in the polls, gives the Chamber of Commerce the jitters. But it's the Senate that has it panicky. Third-quarter fundraising reports show Democrats outraising Martha McSally in Arizona, Joni Ernst in Iowa, and Maine's Susan Collins, which the Chamber's Scott Reed calls a "three-alarm fire."
He tells Allen, "The party was shaken by that. […] We're all worried." That means the Chamber is having to start spending on these races now, the soonest in a cycle it’s ever had to go on the air. "We have to spend early because the climate stinks," Reed said. "All these incumbent senators have terrible job approvals and terrible favorables." Can't imagine why. Of note, the most vulnerable of the lot, Colorado's Cory Gardner, apparently didn't come up in the conversation, suggesting that the Chamber has already cut him loose.
There's the faintest hint that it’s going to let Trump do whatever on his own. "He's still wildly popular in the middle of the country," Reed says, and gives him a 50-50 chance of hanging on. Thanks, Electoral College. But that might also be bluster. For example, the middle of the country that's souring on Joni Ernst isn't going to be too happy with the guy she's glued herself to.
If the Chamber is panicked, they're all panicked. Let's keep them that way.
Please give $1 to our nominee fund to help Democrats and end McConnell's stranglehold on our republic.