A GOP powerhouse group aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), announced additional financial support for John James in Michigan’s battleground Senate race. Incumbent Democrat Sen. Gary Peters once held a wide lead over James, but the majority of new polling shows the GOP challenger within the margin of error. The latest New York Times/Siena poll shows a virtual dead heat in what is one of the most competitive Senate seats that Democrats must defend.
Tie ball game! Nate Cohn's latest features the recent NY Times/Siena poll which shows Michigan is one of the most competitive races in the nation. Representation matters, experience matters & Michiganders see that. This is huge news, let's keep it going! https://t.co/DJfe12aW2m pic.twitter.com/KNS98d4VvI
— John James (@JohnJamesMI) October 12, 2020
SLF previously announced a $9 million investment in the Michigan race for the month of October, but added an additional $5.6 million to their expenditure on the airwaves. The group calls Sen. Peters, who holds a historically low name-identification among constituents, America’s “most anonymous Senator.”
“John James has outshined Gary Peters in every measurable way, candidate to candidate. The tremendous amount of outside money Democrats are spending to bail out the most anonymous Senator in America speaks volumes about how they really view this race - and we are keeping the pressure on as James’ wingmen,” SLF President Steven Law said in a release.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and his aligned group, Senate Majority PAC, appear to be panicking about Sen. Peters’ reelection. Sen. Schumer’s group has already spent nearly $19 million in the race to rescue Sen. Peters from his tough reelection fight. A poll of likely voters conducted in June showed that just 19 percent of those surveyed believe that Sen. Peters deserves a second term in the upper chamber.
James has outraised Sen. Peters consistently throughout the cycle in a race that turned into a potential flip for Republicans. The Cook Political Report still rates the seat as “lean Democrat,” but the momentum is clearly on James’ side with just 19 days to go until the general election.