Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand says she will apply the lessons she learned from the 2024 elections and other recent cycles as she works to win back the Senate majority for Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections.
“If we’ve learned anything over the last few cycles, if you don’t get in the field early, talk to voters about what they’re concerned about, what their issues are at the kitchen table, and then come up with legislative solutions to help them ‘They won’t feel like you have their back. And so it’s about a relationship with your voters,” said the new chairman of the newspaper Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.
Gillibrand, the longtime senator from New York who was re-elected in November, was appointed Monday by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a fellow New Yorker, to steer the Senate Democrats’ campaign committee in the 2026 cycle.
“Electing more Democrats to the Senate in 2026 is the most important thing we can do to limit the damage to Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress and do more for working families,” Schumer said in a statement. “I have worked side by side with Kirsten Gillibrand for almost twenty years and I know she will be an excellent DSCC chair. With her hard work, tenacity and discipline, Senator Gillibrand is the right person to lead our campaign to victory in 2026. .”
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Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., leaves the Senate Democrats’ luncheon in the Mansfield Room in the Capitol on Wednesday, March 15, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Gillibrand vowed in a statement “to do my utmost to support our Democratic incumbents, recruit the strongest possible candidates and ensure they have all the resources needed to win.” I am confident that we will protect our Democratic seats and face strong challenges in our battleground battles. and trying to expand our efforts to some unexpected states.”
The senator looked ahead to her new mission to… majority in the Senate or at least undermined the Republican House’s newly won 53-47 control of the House, and pointed in her Fox News Digital interview to her own re-election and her efforts to help Democrats in the House of Representatives overtake Republicans’ controlled seats in the 2024 cycle.
“I made sure that our candidates for my race and for the House races in New York met with voters in the community two years before the election and talked to them about what was important to them. People were concerned about crime; they were concerned about immigration. They were concerned about the fentanyl and gun trade. They were also concerned about the economy and the cost of food, the cost of housing,” she said.
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Gillibrand emphasized that “we’ve really delivered the outreach and engagement that you really need today to make sure you’re talking about the things that voters want you to work on.”
Moreover, she said Democrats can learn from this President-elect Donald Trump White House victory in 2024.
“President-elect Trump is a formidable candidate. He showed in the last election that he was able to win over voters in states across the country, not just red states,” Gillibrand noted. “I think it’s important to learn the lessons of the last cycle.”
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, Monday, December 16, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP/Evan Vucci)
Senate Democrats faced an extremely difficult task in the 2024 cycle as they lost control of the majority. An early read of the 2026 map shows that they will continue to play defense in some states, but also offers opportunities to go on offense.
Among them is the southeastern battleground state of North Carolina.
“There are some places where Democrats can win if they get the right candidate in the community early enough who talks about the issues voters care about. A state like North Carolina could be one that we came very close to last time,” Gillibrand said. .
Speculation is rife that former Governor Roy Cooper, who just led the state to two terms, could make a bid for the Senate against incumbent Republican Senator Thom Tillis.
“There are some remarkably good candidates in North Carolina, as the former governor would be one of them. That’s the kind of state I’m going to be looking at across the country, states where Democrats have won in the past, where they could win again if they have a candidate who really resonates and does the hard work of engaging voters early.” , said Gillibrand.
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Another potential opportunity for Gillibrand could be blue-leaning Maine, where moderate Republican Susan Collins is up for re-election in 2026.
“Susan is pretty tough to beat,” Gillibrand acknowledged. But she added, “If we find a great candidate there, that’s a race we’ll be competitive in.”
Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
The 2026 map also gives Republicans the opportunity to flip Democratic-controlled seats.
In the swing state of New Hampshire, Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who takes over as senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is up for re-election.
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Sen. Gary Peters, who led the DSCC in the 2022 and 2024 cycles, is up for reelection in battleground Michigan. This also applies to first-term Senator Jon Ossoff in the swing state of Georgia.
“The great thing about Jean Shaheen is that she’s out in her community every week, talking to people on their behalf about the things she’s working on. She’s common sense, she’s bipartisan, and so I’m optimistic that we’ll keep her place, Gillibrand said. “I’m also optimistic about Gary Peters retaining his seat in Michigan. Again, he is extremely bipartisan. He continually works on behalf of Michigan voters to ensure they understand he is fighting for them. The same goes, I’d say for Jon Ossoff. He has hit the ground running this past term as the new senator, and I think he really resonates with Georgia voters.”
