Dem Campaign Chiefs Tell Different Stories on GOP Primary Meddling

If inflation, high gas prices, and President Joe Biden’s low approval ratings weren’t enough to rattle vulnerable Democrats ahead of the midterms, the party’s House and Senate campaign chiefs are now contradicting each other about whether their party ought to prop up election-denying candidates in Republican primaries.

“I’m not doing that. The DSCC, we’re not—we’re not engaged in that,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) Chairman Gary Peters told The Dispatch Wednesday. He was responding to a question about the Chuck Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC’s spending $4 million to boost election-denying candidate Ron Hanks ahead of Colorado’s Republican Senate primary last month. Peters, the junior senator from Michigan, is leading Senate Democrats’ campaign strategy this cycle. 

“I don’t think we should be doing that,” Peters added.

But his condemnation of the practice doesn’t comport with comments made the day before by his Democratic counterpart in the lower chamber, who defends the practice as an effective campaign strategy.