Democratic senator dumps on DSCC's "big mistake" in Maine
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Sen. Chris Van Hollen renewed his attacks on the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on Wednesday, criticizing party leaders for picking favorites in contested primaries, including in Maine.
Why it matters: For Van Hollen, forming the "Fight Club" to challenge President Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wasn't really a choice. It was a response.
- "The first rule of Fight Club is don't talk about Fight Club, but a group of us in the Senate formed the Fight Club for a number of reasons," he said at an Axios News Shapers event in Washington.
- "We want to push the caucus to fight even harder against the lawless Trump administration. I think we've made some progress since this time last year," said Van Hollen, himself a former DSCC chair.
- "We are also very unhappy with the fact that the DSCC has been putting its foot on the scale as the party organization in the Senate in some of these races. So that's what formed the Fight Club."
Between the lines: Van Hollen wants to show his party that he's ready to go to war for progressive causes ahead of a possible presidential run.
- He announced on stage that he'll be heading to New Hampshire in June.
Zoom in: Van Hollen declined to make any new endorsements, but he had high praise for Graham Platner in Maine and harsh criticism for the DSCC.
- "It was a big mistake for the DSCC to weigh in in Maine for the governor (Janet Mills)," he said. "She's been a great governor, but whether you're for the governor or for Platner, the DSCC should not be weighing in."
- But he stopped short of endorsing Platner, saying only: "I think Graham Platner is a great candidate."
Reality check: Schumer has officially endorsed Mills in Maine and privately indicated that he believes Rep. Haley Stevens is the strongest candidate in Michigan, according to people familiar with the matter.
- "The DSCC has one goal: to win a Democratic Senate majority," DSCC spokesperson Maeve Coyle told us in a statement.
- "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."
Zoom out: Democrats are increasingly optimistic about their chances of winning the Senate in the midterms.
- At the same time, they are realistic about the challenging map: They would need to win an open seat in North Carolina, defeat five-term incumbent Susan Collins, and flip two states that Trump won by double digits in 2024 to get to 51 votes.
- Still Republicans appear to accept that they have a lot of defense to play. The Senate Leadership Fund's two biggest ad reservations are in Ohio and North Carolina — two states they already hold.
- But Democrats' chances are complicated by contentious primaries in two key states — Michigan and Maine — where divides between the progressive base and party leaders, including Schumer, have widened.
