No matter what the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is doing in crowded primaries, one thing is certain: It’s angering other Democrats.
The organization did little to stop the brewing primary in Texas, a potentially expensive feud for a prized but elusive seat punctuated by Jasmine Crockett’s entrance and Colin Allred’s departure this week. And in Iowa, Democrats involved in another crowded primary said the committee is warning consultants to not work with the non-DSCC preferred candidate.
The campaign arm’s divergent strategies in Texas and Iowa illustrate its ongoing challenges with controlling the party’s messy primaries — triggering backlash from some Democrats who are furious over its light touch in Texas and heavy-handedness elsewhere. Nearly a dozen Democratic strategists, many of whom were granted anonymity to give candid assessments, described the committee’s unenviable, yet weakened, position, as Democratic base voters remain frustrated with the party’s national leadership.
“They have a ton of tools they could’ve used and they didn’t use them” in Texas, said one person who has been involved in the Texas Senate race. “They don’t have the political power they once had … but it’s evident how weak they are institutionally.”
Democrats need to net four seats to retake the Senate next fall, and intraparty feuds — like those unfolding in Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa and Texas — could hinder that goal.
In Maine, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is closely aligned with the DSCC, heavily recruited Gov. Janet Mills over oysterman Graham Platner, who has racked up a strong small-dollar following despite various controversies. In Michigan, Rep. Haley Stevens was invited to meet donors at a DSCC event in Napa this fall; her two primary opponents were not.
“When the DSCC intervenes, that’s the wrong person putting their thumb on the scale,” said Mary Jo Riesberg, Iowa’s Lee County Democrats chair, who hasn’t yet endorsed in the primary. “It really rubs Iowans the wrong way. We’ve had it happen here before … but it’s Iowans’ business.”
The DSCC has a long history of meddling in primaries on behalf of its preferred candidate — a strategy deployed by both parties and affiliated campaign committees. But wading into primaries has become more complicated in recent years, as the organization no longer exclusively controls access to the cash necessary to build out statewide campaigns. Instead, candidates “can build their own profile” and deliver it “to a national audience, which means dollars and attention, so you don’t have to go through the DSCC anymore,” said a second person involved in the Texas Senate race.
“It’s the rise of grassroots dollars,” the person said, “so the DSCC is weaker.”
Challenges to Democrats’ midterm strategy are also coming from inside its own caucus.
Nine senators, coordinating primarily through a texting chain and calling themselves “Fight Club,” are focused on the primaries for open seats in Minnesota, Michigan and Maine — often backing those who are not seen as Washington’s preferred candidates, according to two people directly familiar with the group’s thinking. The New York Times first reported on the group’s efforts.
“Wading into any primary is challenging in this environment [because] both party’s primary voters live in an anti-establishment world,” said Morgan Jackson, a top adviser to former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who cleared his own primary field after he jumped into the Senate race in July. “I think what you’ve seen from the DSCC, from the [Democratic Governors Association], is a desire to put forward nominees who can win the general election, and that’s where they’re always grounded.”
But what kind of Democrat is best poised to win a general election — especially in battleground or red-leaning territory — is still very much up for debate inside the party, leading to more heartburn over how the DSCC should operate. It’s also part of what’s fueling the rush of candidates joining primaries for Senate and House races across the country. And after sweeping victories in November, when Senate Democrats are casting their eye deep into the Senate map, there’s even more interest in running for office.
So far, the DSCC has not endorsed in any of these states. In a statement, DSCC spokeswoman Maeve Coyle said: “The DSCC has one goal: to win a Democratic Senate majority. We’ve created a path to do that this cycle by recruiting formidable candidates and expanding the map, building strong general election infrastructure, and disqualifying Republican opponents — those are the strategies that led Senate Democrats to overperform in the last four election cycles, and it’s how we will flip the majority in 2026.”
In addition to North Carolina, Senate Democrats managed to avoid a messy battle in Ohio, where former Sen. Sherrod Brown — like Cooper — is running virtually unopposed for his respective nomination. Both states are key to the party’s comeback plan.
It’s also not the first time the DSCC deployed these tactics. In 2019, Senate candidates in Colorado and Maine complained that the DSCC prevented consultants and vendors from working with them after being warned that they’d be blacklisted by the committee, which had backed opposing candidates. In 2016, it spent $1 million to boost Katie McGinty in her Pennsylvania Senate primary over then-Mayor of Braddock John Fetterman. McGinty won her primary, but lost to Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.).
Now it’s warning consultants against working with Iowa state Sen. Zach Wahls and Nathan Sage, the executive director of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, two people involved with the Iowa race said. The DSCC hasn’t weighed in on the race formally, but several Iowa Democrats said state Rep. Josh Turek, a Paralympian and two-time gold medalist, is the committee’s preferred candidate.
“There is a very strong frustration among the Democratic base with party and establishment leadership that you didn’t see in 2018 or 2020 at this level,” said a Democratic strategist working with Wahls’ campaign in Iowa. “There is a resistance to the Democratic establishment, not just the establishment now.”
Other Democrats, however, defended the committee’s moves. “These sound like complaints from people who have hurt feelings they didn’t get contracts and not people who actually care about winning races,” said a Democratic strategist working on multiple senate races.
Heading into 2026, the DSCC faces more primaries than usual. In Texas, Crockett, a Democratic firebrand who frequently clashes with Trump, will face off against state Rep. James Talarico, who has built a national profile by lacing his criticisms of Trump with Bible verses and appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Democrats expect the fight to be expensive, as Crockett and Talarico, both known to go viral online, are prolific fundraisers.
Crockett’s entrance into the race — including a launch video featuring Trump calling her a “low IQ person” — prompted eyerolls among moderate Democrats. Trump has won Texas by double digits three times and Crockett “has cultivated a reputation as a hyper-partisan figure,” said Simon Bazelon, an adviser to the center-left Welcome PAC organization.” Bazelon added she’ll have “a very tough hill to climb while trying to win statewide.”
Of her critics, Crockett said this week, “I just want to be clear for all the haters in the back. Listen up real loud. We gonna get this thing done.”
The “Fight Club” senators — and the candidates they’re endorsing so far — tend to be more progressive, but they put a premium on backing “real fighters who are throwing out the old playbook,” one of the two people familiar with their thinking said. It’s a style over status quo argument that’s led Democratic elected officials to more openly criticize their caucus’ leadership.
In Minnesota, seven of those eight senators, including Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), endorsed Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan over Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) in the open seat to replace retiring Sen. Tina Smith. The primary in a blue-leaning state has pretty much flown under the radar in recent months, but it’s on track to become expensive and contentious.
“[The senators] all really liked [Flanagan], they want her to be the nominee and they were pissed that the DSCC was putting its hand on the scale,” said one person familiar with the situation.
Craig, for her part, has also picked up backing from several senators, including Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.). And she’s raised $2.2 million for her campaign, according to October Federal Elections Commission filings — more than double the nearly $1 million Flanagan raised.
“I don’t know who the DSCC prefers, but there is definitely a clear difference in this race,” Craig said in a statement. “I’ve won tough elections against Republicans, show up and do my job every day, and voted twice to impeach Donald Trump. There’s another Democrat in the race who has never had to run a competitive race by herself on a ballot and regularly skips the work she’s supposed to be doing now back home in Minnesota — and now wants a promotion.”
Adam Wren contributed reporting.
Politics
