Conservative groups plan to spend $10 million on bullying Democrats to vote for Trump SCOTUS pick
Groups like the Judicial Crisis Network have already invested something like $7 million into securing the Supreme Court, but that was just a downpayment. The plan now is to spend at least $10 million to target Senate Democrats who are up in 2018, hoping to sway them to vote for whatever popular vote loser Donald Trump gives them.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) vowed this month that his caucus will oppose high-court nominees that are not “mainstream”—adding that he would “absolutely” try and keep the seat vacant. Republicans hold 52 seats in the Senate and will need at least eight Democrats to break a filibuster on a Supreme Court nominee. […]But JCN believes it can go around Schumer by concentrating its fire on his members who must win over Trump voters in 2018. Ten Senate Democrats are up for reelection in Trump states.
"We are preparing to launch the most robust campaign for a Supreme Court nominee in history and we will force vulnerable Senators up for re-election in 2018 like Joe Donnelly and Claire McCaskill to decide between keeping their Senate seats or following Chuck Schumer's liberal, obstructionist agenda,” said JCN’s chief counsel Carrie Severino.
JCN is just one player in a larger, multi-faceted effort outside the halls of the Capitol to confirm a new conservative justice, sources planning the strategy said. The push will also include paid advertising, earned media, research and grassroots outreach from JCN and several other prominent conservative groups. JCN’s paid advertising will likely concentrate on Democrats like Donnelly of Indiana, McCaskill of Missouri and Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Jon Tester of Montana, who all hail from states that Trump won overwhelmingly.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), sure they can probably get him. In fact, they aren't even going to run ads against him. But picking up eight more? To rubber stamp Trump and wreck the Supreme Court for who knows how long? That's going to be an awfully heavy lift. Particularly since they'd be abandoned by all of the left—the grassroots, donors, interest groups—if they give in.