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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) has been sounding increasingly optimistic about seizing a majority in the upper chamber after the November elections, and not without cause. The party of a second-term president routinely takes a shellacking in the midterms, and polls in various Senate races suggest Republicans could surrender a number of seats. But now there’s an open Democratic seat that is looking more vulnerable. Mr. Schumer wants to play offense against incumbent Republicans, but he’s going to have to spend more time and money playing defense in New Hampshire, where Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is retiring and her expected replacement, Rep. Chris
Pappas, suddenly appears to be struggling. “Live Free or Die” is New Hampshire’s stirring motto, and consistent with this ultimate respect for liberty, the state tends toward a live-and-let-live culture. Therefore this column has been wondering for a while if Mr. Pappas will pay a price for enlisting in the Democratic culture war to deny biological reality and force girls to accept boys on their sports teams. But now it seems Mr. Pappas also has a problem on his left flank, where his support appears to be imploding just before the September Democratic primary. The University of New
Hampshire’s Granite State Poll reports that as recently as April Mr. Pappas led Democratic socialist Krishma Manzur by a commanding 61% to 18%. Yet in its recent polling UNH now finds that Rep. Pappas leads by just 47% to 34%. With a significant number of Democrats still undecided, the poll also finds that Ms. Manzur now enjoys a higher net favorability rating (the percentage with a favorable view minus the percentage with an unfavorable view) among likely Democratic primary voters. This is the last news Mr. Schumer needed and it arrives just as another survey suggests that he is America’s most unpopular politician. ***
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