EMILY's List 'hyper-focused' on Senate elections in 2020
While the presidential race will dominate the 2020 cycle, EMILY’s List president Stephanie Schriock is imploring Democratic voters to recognize the importance of flipping the Senate, especially because of its role in confirming Supreme Court justices.
If President Trump wins reelection in 2020 and Republicans maintain control of the Senate, Schriock predicted a “massive fight” over the next Supreme Court vacancy. A vacancy could further shift the ideological balance of the court, which has influence over issues including abortion, a core issue for EMILY’s List.
“We think the best way to prevent that scenario is to make sure that that Senate is in Democratic hands no matter what happens in the White House,” Schriock said Thursday in an interview for the C-SPAN program “Newsmakers” scheduled to run this weekend. “So we are so hyper-focused on winning that United States Senate.”
She said voters who care about the courts should not wait.
“The fight’s now. The fight isn’t when there’s an opening,” Schriock said. “The fight is right now in 2020 and we’ve got to win as Democrats if we want to see a strong, fair justice sitting on that court. I don’t know what else to tell folks.”
Democrats need a net gain of three or four seats to flip the Senate, depending on whether a Democrat wins the White House, since the vice president casts tie-breaking votes in the Senate.
EMILY’s List, which backs Democratic women candidates who support abortion rights, has endorsed three Democrats looking to flip Republican Senate seats in 2020: Sara Gideon in Maine, Theresa Greenfield in Iowa and Barbara Bollier in Kansas. Schriock also said if the crowded Texas Senate primary continues to a runoff featuring one man and one woman, EMILY’s List would back the female candidate.
https://www.rollcall.com/news/campaigns/emilys-list-hyper-focused-senate-elections-2020
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