Editing Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (section)

===2017–2018 election cycle===

First-term Senator [[Chris Van Hollen]] of [[Maryland]] chaired the DSCC for the 2017–2018 election cycle. Before the [[United States Senate elections, 2018|2018 elections]], Democrats held 49 seats in the U.S. Senate while Republicans held 51. The unusually imbalanced 2018 Senate map, created by successful 2006 and 2012 elections, resulted in a large number of vulnerable Democrats. [[Joe Donnelly]] of Indiana, [[Claire McCaskill]] of Missouri, [[Joe Manchin]] of West Virginia, [[Heidi Heitkamp]] of North Dakota, [[Jon Tester]] of Montana and [[Bill Nelson]] of Florida were seen as the most vulnerable. On November 6, incumbent Democrats in four states were unseated; Donnelly was unseated by State Rep. [[Mike Braun]], McCaskill was defeated by [[Missouri Attorney General]] [[Josh Hawley]], Heitkamp was defeated by [[Kevin Cramer]], representative for North Dakota's at-large congressional district, and Nelson was defeated by then [[governor of Florida|Governor]] [[Rick Scott]]. The DSCC considered open seats in [[United States Senate election in Arizona, 2018|Arizona]] and [[United States Senate election in Tennessee, 2018|Tennessee]], [[Dean Heller]]'s seat in Nevada and potentially [[Ted Cruz]]'s seat in Texas and [[Cindy Hyde-Smith]]'s seat in Mississippi as possible targets. Of those potentially vulnerable seats, Democrats picked up the open seat in Arizona vacated by [[Jeff Flake]], with Rep. [[Kyrsten Sinema]] defeated Rep. [[Martha McSally]], as well as the seat in Nevada held by Dean Heller, being defeated by Rep. [[Jacky Rosen]], leaving the Senate's balance at 53–47, with Republicans in control.