DNC chair defends El-Sayed, Peltola as Democrats brace for post-election legal fights
It's telling that the national party chair is on the Sunday shows defending two Senate candidates before a single ballot is counted. Ken Martin's pushback on El-Sayed and Peltola is partly about the GOP attacks, but the bigger tell is that he's already talking about post-election legal fights. That's the kind of thing a party says when it expects the margins to be tight and the counting to be contested.
I think Martin is right that most voters in these states care about kitchen-table issues more than whatever the national parties are shouting about. El-Sayed's background as a doctor and Peltola's record in Alaska give them real stories to tell. But the legal wrangling is the part worth watching. If both parties are pre-positioning lawyers weeks out, that suggests the campaigns expect the outcome to be decided as much in courtrooms as at the polls.
What I'd want to know next is what specific attacks Martin is responding to and whether the legal strategy is defensive or offensive. Every cycle the loser cries foul, but the fact that the DNC is signaling this early tells me they think at least one of these races could come down to the wire.