Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is urging is fellow Democrats to avoid spending time on gun-control legislation during the budget debate, The Hill reported Wednesday.
Instead, Schumer says he wants to stick to economic issues he believes will help Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections.
"I would like and I am urging my caucus to limit it to four issues," Schumer said Wednesday.
He wants Democrats to attack the GOP plan to cut the tax rate for the highest bracket, oppose middle-class tax increases, fight cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and argue for tax reform not adding to the federal deficit.
"Those are the four issues we'd like to focus on instead of doing a long vote-a-rama on every other issue," Schumer told reporters.
The reason for the strategy lies in the fact that 10 Democrats face re-election in states won last year by President Donald Trump. And voters in at least three of those states, West Virginia, Montana and North Dakota, heavily favor gun rights.
If Democrats could hold onto those seats, and perhaps even win three more, they could take back control of the Senate where they currently are in a 48-52 minority.
Some Democrats and their backers understand the strategy, though some, like California Sen. Kamala Harris said on Twitter Wednesday that the gun issue is already fading just 16 days after the country's worst mass shooting in Las Vegas, that killed 58 people.
"Conversations about gun violence have faded," she said. "We can't accept that."
But David Saunders, an adviser to former Democratic presidential candidates Jim Webb and John Edwards, told The Hill he understands Schumer's position.
"He's one of the few people up there who can count," Saunders said.
Polls that show strong support for gun control measures often are unduly influenced by a vocal minority, Saunders said.
"The 28 percent that don't want it are single-issue voters and that's why the gun numbers are so deceiving for people," he said.
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