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{"id":27361,"date":"2026-10-01T08:49:46","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T08:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-dems-skip-dc-with-wind-in-their-sails\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T08:49:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T08:49:46","slug":"capitol-agenda-dems-skip-dc-with-wind-in-their-sails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-dems-skip-dc-with-wind-in-their-sails\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Dems skip DC with wind in their sails"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The Senate wrapped up its work late Wednesday night, and lawmakers in both chambers won\u2019t be back until after midterm voters pass judgment.<\/p>\n<p>And Chuck Schumer is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/30\/chuck-schumer-senate-democrats-midterms-interview-01102265\" target=\"_blank\">growing increasingly confident<\/a> they\u2019ll hand the Senate to Democrats<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere\u2019s how I\u2019d sum up the election: Can enormous amounts of Republican money beat a Democratic enormous advantage in much better candidates and a much better political climate?\u201d the minority leader said in an interview in his office Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we win,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Schumer\u2019s optimism \u2014 saying Democrats\u2019 have the \u201cwind in their sails\u201d \u2014 reflects his members\u2019 growing bullishness as they head home for a final sprint to convince voters to give them back the majority. The Senate recessed Wednesday night <a href=\"http:\/\/subscriber.politicopro.com\/article\/2026\/09\/sonderling-confirmed-as-dol-secretary-01102722\" target=\"_blank\">after confirming<\/a> President Donald Trump\u2019s Labor secretary, but Democrats stayed united in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/09\/30\/congress\/democrats-block-data-center-power-legislation-01099486\" target=\"_blank\">string\u00a0<\/a>of politically <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/09\/30\/congress\/senate-stock-trading-vote-01099912\" target=\"_blank\">tricky<\/a> votes before leaving.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt certainly feels like it\u2019s going to be a wave election, and not for good reasons,\u201d Sen. Chris Murphy said. \u201cThis president\u2019s domestic and foreign policy has gone off the rails.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s division among Democratic party strategists on whether to spend these final weeks focusing on the states viewed as most likely to flip \u2014 like Alaska, Ohio or Iowa \u2014 or put resources into so-called reach states like Mississippi, South Carolina or Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Schumer declined to weigh in, but said that Democrats would do \u201cwhatever it takes to win\u201d and that he expects to spend the next five weeks fundraising.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have lots of different paths to victory, and we\u2019re not going to turn any of them down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Also hanging over the midterm elections are questions about Schumer\u2019s future \u2014 but the New York Democrat said that he is \u201crunning for re-election for leader. Period.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republicans, meanwhile, are still hopeful that they can hold onto their majority even if it\u2019s narrower. Much of the midterms map runs through states that Trump won previously.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course we are,\u201d Senate Majority Leader John Thune said about keeping control of the chamber as he left the building Wednesday. \u201cThank you for asking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b><i>What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 PERMITTING DEAL FACES HOUSE BUZZSAW \u2014<\/b> The Senate\u2019s newly announced bipartisan permitting reform package is set to hit a wall in the House, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/10\/01\/senate-bipartisan-permitting-deal-faces-house-buzz-saw-01102247\" target=\"_blank\">where key lawmakers aren\u2019t<\/a> rushing to endorse it. House Natural Resources ranking member Jared Huffman warned Wednesday most House Democrats will not support the Senate\u2019s permitting legislation as written, urging lawmakers to resume negotiations after the midterm elections when they are \u201clikely to have a far better negotiating position.\u201d And House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie, a key GOP negotiator, has yet to take a position on the Senate deal.<\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014RASKIN WANTS TRUMP AD PROBE \u2014\u00a0<\/b>House Judiciary\u2019s top Democrat is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/10\/01\/congress\/raskin-wants-answers-01102271\" target=\"_blank\">demanding federal inquiries<\/a> into the amount of taxpayer money that was used by the Trump administration for a TV ad blitz endorsing the president ahead of the midterms. Rep. Jamie Raskin, who is poised to lead the panel if Democrats flip the chamber, and Rep. George Whitesides, wrote to the Government Accountability Office Wednesday asking them to investigate the \u201csource, accounts and total amount of taxpayer funds used\u201d to produce and distribute the ads. The pair of lawmakers also asked the Office of Special Counsel to investigate whether the ads \u201cconstitute a violation of the Hatch Act\u201d and to \u201cdetermine who should be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>Nico Portuondo and Chris Marquette contributed to this report.<\/i><br \/>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Senate wrapped up its work late Wednesday night, and lawmakers in both chambers won\u2019t be back until after midterm voters pass judgment. And Chuck Schumer is growing increasingly confident they\u2019ll hand the Senate to Democrats \u201cHere\u2019s how I\u2019d sum up the election: Can enormous amounts of Republican money beat a Democratic enormous advantage in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}