Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is the Democratic Hill committee for the United States Senate. It is the only organization solely dedicated to electing Democrats to the United States Senate. The DSCC's current Chairman is Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who succeeded Senator Jon Tester following the United States Senate elections, 2016. The DSCC's current Executive Director is Tom Lopach, who is assisted by Deputy Executive Director Preston Elliott.

Patty Murray was the first female chair of the DSCC. Her tenure was a mixed bag. Her team raised more than $143 million, beating the previous record by $40 million, but Democrats lost two seats. For the first time since 1914 a president's party had taken control of the Senate in a midterm election. Most observers, though, attributed the outcome to George W. Bush's post-9/11 popularity and the death of Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, who had been favored to win.

Chuck Schumer chaired the DSCC for the first of two consecutive cycles. Prior to the election, the Republican Party controlled 55 of the 100 Senate seats. The Senate elections were part of the Democratic sweep of the 2006 elections, in which Democrats made numerous gains and no Congressional or gubernatorial seat held by a Democrat was won by a Republican. Six Republican incumbents were defeated by Democrats: Jim Talent (Missouri) lost to Claire McCaskill, Conrad Burns (Montana) lost to Jon Tester, Mike DeWine (Ohio) lost to Sherrod Brown, Rick Santorum (Pennsylvania) lost to Bob Casey Jr., Lincoln Chafee (Rhode Island) lost to Sheldon Whitehouse, and George Allen (Virginia) lost to Jim Webb. Incumbent Democrat Joe Lieberman (Connecticut) lost the Democratic primary, but won re-election as an independent. Democrats kept their two open seats in Minnesota and Maryland, and Republicans held onto their lone open seat in Tennessee. In Vermont, Bernie Sanders, an independent, was elected to the seat left open by independent Senator Jim Jeffords. In the 2006 election, two new female Senators (Claire McCaskill and Amy Klobuchar) were elected to seats previously held by men. This brought the total number of female senators to an all-time high of 16.

Following the elections, no party held a majority of seats for the first time since 1954. However, the party balance for the Senate stood at 51–49 in favor of the Democrats, because independents Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman caucused with the Democrats. The Democrats needed 51 seats to control the Senate because Vice President Dick Cheney would have broken any 50–50 tie in favor of the Republicans.

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