Welch says vulnerable Democrats ‘doing the right thing’ by skipping convention

Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said on Wednesday that his vulnerable Democratic colleagues are “doing the right thing” by skipping the party convention this week, if they think that will help them win reelection in November.

“I think the right move for them is to do whatever is required for them to win that race,” Welch told MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera and José Díaz-Balart, when asked about Democrats in tough races choosing to skip the Chicago convention.

Cabrera pointed to Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) as examples of Democratic senators absent in Chicago this week.

“Each of us represents a state. So, you mentioned Brown and Tester. They come from two tough states. They are very popular senators, but they are doing everything that they can — as they do throughout their entire six-year term — to make it clear they put Montana first, they put Ohio first,” Welch, a freshman senator, said in the interview.

“So, any of us who are in a contested race have to make decisions on the basis of, ‘How are we going to win?’ And Tester and Sherrod Brown are doing that, Jacky Rosen. So, yes, I think they are doing the right thing,” he continued.

Thousands of Democrats descended on Chicago this week to rally behind their party’s presidential ticket ahead of the November election. Some elected Democrats — including senators and House members — opted instead to stay home and focus on campaigning for their own reelection efforts.

Tester is facing what is likely his biggest reelection challenge yet in what is otherwise a solidly Republican state. He is also one of the relatively few Democrats in Congress who has not thrown his support behind Harris’s bid.

The campaign’s press secretary told the Montana Free Press that the senator will spend his August farming and meeting directly with Montanans. The three-term incumbent will hold a fundraiser Wednesday with a member of the rock band Pearl Jam, according to the outlet.

Brown’s campaign said the Ohio senator had been planning to skip the convention this year to spend more time in Ohio and noted that the senator has endorsed Harris.

“We’ve been planning to be in Ohio for months and Sherrod is looking forward to hearing from Ohioans in Youngstown, Toledo, Cleveland, Chillicothe, and Sandusky this week to discuss his record fighting for the Dignity of Work,” campaign spokesperson Eliza Green said.

Brown is up for reelection in a state that has increasingly been voting Republican.

Rosen faces Republican Sam Brown in what may be one of the closest Senate contests this year. Rosen told the New York Times in an interview that “it’s important that I’m home” and that it’s “the best place I can be.”

She has not attended Democratic conventions in the past, however, and held a rally in Las Vegas with Harris and vice presidential nominee Tim Walz last Saturday.

“Senator Rosen supports the Harris-Walz ticket and was glad to join them on the campaign trail in Las Vegas this past weekend,” a campaign spokesperson said. “She is also focused on her own reelection and will be talking with Nevada voters during the week of the convention.”

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who is not up for reelection this year, is also not attending the convention, saying, “I’ve got three young kids, and they’re out of school,” in an interview with The Free Press. “That’s four days I can spend with my children.”

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who also isn’t making the trip to Chicago, is up for reelection in a state that is more comfortably blue than some of the others skipping the convention, but he has become more of a target for Republican this cycle.

“Senator Heinrich is excited to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as the next President & Vice President of the United States. He has other commitments during the time of the convention,” a spokesperson told Scripps News.