Will Frank Bisignano Cost The Republican Party Both Houses Of Congress Next Year?
- Howie Klein
- 11 hours ago
- 4 min read
The House Is Nearly A Given, But What About The Senate?
Democrats got a lucky break Monday: Georgia Governor Brian Kemp announced, despite intense pressure from Senate Republicans, that he’s not going to be taking on Senator Jon Ossoff next year. As Charlie Cook wrote yesterday, this “means more than the GOP not having its strongest horse. It means greater chances that Georgia Republican primary voters will nominate the kind of candidate that I describe as ‘exotic and potentially problematic…’ Don’t forget that Republicans managed to punt away as many as four Senate seats over the last two election cycles by nominating candidates in swing and near-swing states who might have been able to win in deeply red states but not purple states.” Nd speaking of “exotic,” every Democrat’s first choice would be Marjorie Traitor Greene, who keeps making candidate noises. But there really other lunatic fringe potential candidates as well, like congressmen Mike Collins, Buddy Carter and Rich McCormick. In any case, Ossoff is a lot safer with Kemp not running.
Even with a blue wave that can take out a couple dozen House Republicans, the Senate is a different matter, with a map very favorable to Republicans. Of the 22 red seats with elections, only two are viewed as competitive— Maine (San Collins) and North Carolina (Thom Tillis). If you want to stretch the meaning of “competitive,” you could include Alaska (R+6), Florida (R+5), Iowa (R+6), Ohio (R+5) and Texas (R+6). And Georgia isn’t the only blue state causing jitters among Democrats. New Hampshire’s, Michigan’s and Minnesota’s open seats are all in play.
One major problem is that Schumer can be counted on to put his fat fingers on the primary scale in favor of the kind of conservative politicians who always discourage the Democratic base. Yesterday, Shane Goldmacher reported that Schumer is doing a good job, though he never has before and certainly isn’t now. He’s “been dialing up past and present politicians in hopes of landing previous red-state winners. Some, like former Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and former Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, could instantly make their states’ races more competitive. But party strategists are also thinking outside the box, looking for political lottery tickets in places like Alaska, Mississippi and Texas. Some are even quietly talking about backing independent candidates instead of Democrats in especially challenging states, including Nebraska, where the independent Dan Osborn is considering a second Senate run.”
The last thing in the world Osborn needs is Schumer’s kiss of death getting anywhere near his campaign. Sherrod Brown, Beto O’Rourke and Roy Cooper make sense. But other Schumer faves like right-wing Dem Mary Peltola, who lost her Alaska seat last year and is now a K Street lobbyist and right-wing and anti-Choice former Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards less so.
Schumer is yet to learn one of Bernie’s most important messages: “The American people, I think, not only want resistance to Trump, but I think they want what the Democratic Party in the last many years has not given them, and that is an agenda that speaks to the needs of the working class, because it’s not good enough. ‘Oh, well, you know, Trump is a terrible guy,’ he continued, mimicking other critics of the president. Fine. You know, the majority of American people understand that. What’s your alternative? Why did Trump get elected? What do you have to say to a worker today who’s making 14 bucks an hour, who can’t afford health care? Tell me what you have to say. What do you have to say to kids who would like to go to college, who can’t afford to go to college?”
Trump handed the Democrats another weapon to use against his own party yesterday— every Senate Republican voted to confirm reactionary Frank Bisignano to be Commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Every Democrat— even Fetterman, Slotkin and Shaheen— voted against the confirmation.
15 Republicans— Jeff Hurd (CO), Gabe Evans (CO), Don Bacon (NE), Jeff Van Drew (NJ), David Valadao (CA), Juan Ciscomani (AZ), Jen Kiggans (VA), Mike Ezell (MS), Mike Turner (OH), Zack Nunn (IA), Nicole Malliotakis (NY), Mike Lawler (NY), Ryan Mackenzie (PA), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA) and Rob Bresnahan (PA)— all but two, Ezell and Malliotakis, on the verge of losing their seats, wrote a letter warning Bisignano that targeting the Social Security Administration with more cuts could “further deteriorate customer service that has been subpar in recent years… We are concerned about the SSA implementing staffing cuts and ending leases of customer service centers.”
This is a huge opening for Democrats heading into the 2026 midterms, especially in districts and states with older or economically precarious voters. Bisignano isn’t just another corporate suit— he’s the former CEO of Fiserv, a finance and tech conglomerate known for slashing jobs, outsourcing labor, and extracting value rather than creating it. He has no background in social insurance, no record of public service, and no interest in the mission of Social Security. His career has been about profits, not people. Now he's in charge of one of the most vital public institutions in America. He represents the long-standing right-wing dream of undermining Social Security from within— by mismanaging it, privatizing its functions, and making it harder for ordinary people to access their earned benefits. This is part of the broader Republican strategy: claim the program is “failing,” then sabotage it through corporate control and bureaucratic attrition. Anyone who cares about preserving Social Security should see this appointment for what it is— a warning shot. And Democrats now have a compelling way to contrast their position with the GOP’s: they voted to protect Social Security. Republicans voted to hand it over to Wall Street.