Chuck Schumer’s Last Stand

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has long prided himself on a singular skill—picking winners. His recruitment coups in North Carolina, Alaska and Ohio this cycle were hailed as masterstrokes.But in a series of high-stakes primaries unfolding across Maine, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota, his once-formidable machinery is colliding headlong with a Democratic base increasingly hostile to Washington leadership and increasingly indifferent to electability calculations.The result is a consequential test not just of Schumer's political judgment, but of whether Democrats can win the Senate in this year's midterms while fundamentally reimagining what the party stands for after President Donald Trump. If his candidates prevail, Democrats may keep the map competitive but struggle to energize voters on issues they demand.But if they lose, Schumer's authority over the Senate caucus erodes further, and with it, the viability of a Democratic strategy built on centrist recruitment that may already be obsolete.Maine just offered the starkest example. Governor Janet Mills, backed openly by Schumer and deemed by centrist Democrats as the most "electable" candidate, suspended her campaign Thursday after weeks of hemorrhaging support to progressive insurgent Graham Platner. Mills had won statewide twice, by comfortable margins...."While I have the drive and passion, commitment and experience, and