Voters handed Democrats their biggest Senate wave in decades. Schumer's committees sat out the Florida and Louisiana races, and Democrats lost both by less than 3 points.
By Joseph Jackson | TAMPA (Nov. 5, 2026)
This is an opinion of Florida Man News Network. FMNN endorsed Angie Nixon in an earlier editorial.
The short version
Democrats hold at least 54 Senate seats, with Alaska and Mississippi still counting. 60 is the number that beats a filibuster.
Angie Nixon lost Florida by about 3 points and Jamie Davis lost Louisiana by 1.8. Schumer's two big Senate groups put no money behind either one.
Jeffries took AIPAC PAC's largest-ever earmarked donation in May. Schumer publicly thanked Trump for the Gaza deal Jared Kushner helped close.
Democrats won at least 54 Senate seats on Tuesday and flipped seven Republican seats, from Texas to Maine. (NBC News, Northeastern/AP) Here in Florida, Angie Nixon came within 3 points of Sen. Ashley Moody without a dime from the party's Senate committees.
That's the story nobody in Washington wants told. This was the year Democrats could have reached 60, the number that breaks a filibuster. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries left it on the table.
The math they don't want you to do
Start at 54. Alaska and Mississippi are still being counted, with Democrats Mary Peltola and Scott Colom in razor-close races. (Al Jazeera) As of Thursday morning, neither had been called: Colom led Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by about 1,100 votes (CBS News), and less than a point separated Peltola and Sen. Dan Sullivan (The Washington Post). Win both and it's 56.
Now look at the near misses:
Florida: Moody 50.9%, Nixon 48.1%. (Florida Politics) Neither Senate Majority PAC nor the DSCC spent anything to support her. (The American Prospect)
Louisiana: Republican Julia Letlow beat Democrat Jamie Davis by 25,857 votes, 50.9% to 49.1%. (Louisiana Illuminator) The race record shows about $22.4 million in outside spending involving Letlow and none for Davis. (Legis1)
Montana: Republican Kurt Alme won with under 49% because the Democrat and an independent split the rest. (NBC News, Semafor)
Nebraska: independent Dan Osborn lost to Sen. Pete Ricketts. (NBC News)
Fifty-six plus Florida, Louisiana, Montana and Nebraska is 60. Two of those were lost by less than 3 points, and the party's Senate money stayed home. Louisiana's margin was smaller than the crowd at an LSU home game.
Florida was written off. Florida almost won.
Republicans outspent Democrats on Florida TV ads $28.7 million to $7.9 million, according to AdImpact data reported by Truthout. (Truthout) Nixon still won Miami-Dade and matched David Jolly at the top of the ticket, the Tampa Bay Times reported, while getting "little investment" from national Democrats. (Tampa Bay Times)
Louisiana tells the same story. An LSU political scientist told WBRZ that Democrats did not help Davis and that big ad buys might have flipped it. (WBRZ) Davis drew 720,106 votes, the most ever for a Black candidate statewide in Louisiana. (Louisiana Illuminator)
Two Black candidates in the Deep South. Both within 3 points. Both left to raise it themselves.
Schumer picked wrong, and voters fixed it
Schumer's instincts failed in the primaries too. He recruited Gov. Janet Mills in Maine. She dropped out before the primary after trailing in money and polls. (CNN via ABC17, Fox News) Troy Jackson, a Bernie Sanders-backed logger, became the nominee and beat Susan Collins. (CBS News)
In Michigan, AIPAC's super PAC spent about $30 million to stop Abdul El-Sayed. He's a senator-elect now. (See FMNN's AIPAC teardown.) Voters kept picking the fighters. The leadership kept betting on the safe names.
Follow the AIPAC money to the top
In May, AIPAC's PAC sent $149,300 to Jeffries' joint fundraising committee, earmarked from billionaire hedge fund founder Daniel Och. Sludge called it AIPAC PAC's largest earmarked donation ever. Weeks later, Jeffries came out against Rep. Thomas Massie's amendment to cut $3.3 billion in military aid to Israel. (Sludge)
Before Trump's Iran war, a senior Schumer foreign policy aide described the hope of "AIPAC-aligned Senate Democrats" this way: let Trump act alone and absorb the backlash before the midterms, as reported by Capital & Empire's Aída Chávez. (Truthout) That's not opposition. That's waiting for the other guy to take the hit.
The Kushner connection
Schumer's ties to the Trump-Kushner orbit go back decades. Charles Kushner, Jared's father, gave to Schumer's committees. When Charles was charged in 2004, Schumer gave $4,000 to charity but kept another $60,000 from Kushner partnerships, the Village Voice reported. (Village Voice) Charles Kushner later went to prison for tax evasion, witness tampering and illegal campaign donations. (Free Beacon)
Trump gave Schumer about $9,000 over the years. Jared Kushner gave $4,000. Asked if Schumer would return it, his office called it "a ridiculous question." Trump's take in 2016: "I've known Schumer for many, many years." (NBC New York)
When the Gaza deal Jared Kushner helped close came through last October, Schumer thanked "President Trump, his administration and all who helped make this moment happen." (UPI via Breitbart, CNN via KVIA) Hostages coming home is worth celebrating. But a Democratic leader is warmest toward Trump when the subject is Israel, and coldest toward his own candidates when the subject is money for Florida.
Their side, and the record
Their claim: Schumer says Democrats recruited the right candidates in every race they flipped. (NBC News)
The record: True for seats like North Carolina, where Roy Cooper won big. But Maine's winner wasn't his recruit, and the Florida and Louisiana nominees he didn't pick got nothing.
Their claim: Money is finite, and Florida and Louisiana looked out of reach.
The record: Democrats picked up about 10 points in Florida from 2024. (Truthout) Davis's own poll had him tied the Friday before the election. (Louisiana Illuminator) The signs were there. The checks weren't.
Their claim: Nixon is a democratic socialist who couldn't win Florida.
The record: She ran even with the centrist governor nominee and won Miami-Dade, the county Republicans said socialism would sink her in. (Tampa Bay Times)
Our take
Democrats didn't win this wave because of their leaders. They won it in spite of them. Voters did the work. Nixon in Jacksonville, Davis in Tensas Parish and Jackson in the Maine woods did the work.
A 60-seat Senate means no filibuster excuse. It means the agenda voters just demanded actually passes. Schumer and Jeffries will spend January celebrating 54. Florida should remember the 3 points.
Moody is on the ballot again in 2028. (The American Prospect) Before then, every Democrat asking Florida for a vote should answer two questions: will you take AIPAC money, and will you back the next leader of the Senate Democrats if it isn't Chuck Schumer?