Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is making her pitch to oversee the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm — and is citing her party’s successes last week in New York to help make her case.
Last Tuesday, on what was otherwise a tough day for the party nationally, Democrats flipped three congressional seats across New York. Several Democrats have credited a coordinated campaign initiative that Gillibrand co-led with helping tip the scales.
Gillibrand argues that, if she is named the next chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is tasked with securing a Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate, she could apply lessons from New York’s coordinated campaign and her own reelection win last week to contests across the country.
“I know how to win red and purple districts, and I've won now four statewide races — among the highest margin ever in the history of our state,” Gillibrand said in an interview.
After this year’s election, to win back control of the U.S. Senate, Democrats will need to flip at least three seats.
New York’s coordinated campaign was launched in 2023. Gillibrand teamed up with Congressman Hakeem Jeffries and Gov. Kathy Hochul to lead it, with the goal of reversing gains Republicans made across New York in the 2022 midterms.
“For the last two years, we've been organizing, listening to voters, listening exactly [to] what their top of mind issues were, and then making sure we had an agenda and things that we've done and things we hope to do on those very topics,” Gillibrand said.
In last week’s election, Democrats flipped three of the targeted battleground seats in New York, and held on to two others.
“New York was a bright light,” Gillibrand said.
The Path to the Majority
Gillibrand admits her party faces a complicated road to the Senate majority in the near future.
Between the 2026 and 2028 elections, there are only a handful of potential pickup opportunities for Democrats, and they are in states such as North Carolina and Wisconsin that lean Republican or are true battlegrounds.
All the while, the party will also have to defend incumbents in states including Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Still, Gillibrand remains optimistic another Democratic majority is in reach, saying, “I think it'll take at least two cycles, but I'm willing to do the work.”
If Gillibrand gets the job and helps secure a new Democratic majority, it comes with an added benefit for New York: potentially returning Sen. Chuck Schumer to the role of Majority Leader.
So far, Gillibrand appears to be the only lawmaker actively volunteering to take on the job as chair.