Sixty House Democratic candidates raised more than $1 million apiece for their campaigns over the last three months, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced Thursday, putting them on firm financial footing roughly a month before the midterm elections.
Rep. Ben Ray Lujan said at a breakfast hosted by Bloomberg News in Washington that the three-month financial boost leaves Democrats well-positioned to net the 23 seats they need to flip control of the House in November.
“I’ve been clear that I believe we’ll pick up the House,” Mr. Lujan said. “I never said that it would be easy, I always said that it would be tough and that we’d have to fight for every seat.”
Jesse Hunt, spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee, the House GOP campaign arm, said Democrats are getting a boost from coastal radicals.
“Liberal donors from places like San Francisco, Boston and New York are certainly excited to donate to a bunch of candidates who want to abolish ICE and pass a single-payer health care plan,” Mr. Hunt said.
He did not provide any details on the donations coming into House GOP candidates.
The deadline for candidates to file campaign finance reports for the period between the beginning of July and the end of September is Oct. 15.
Mr. Lujan, meanwhile, was happy to provide a glimpse of what the reports will show, touting that more 30 Democratic candidates raised more than $2 million and eight more raised over $3 million.
“It shows you where there’s a lot of energy and momentum,” the New Mexico Democrat said, according to Bloomberg News.
Mr. Lujan refused to provide a list of candidates with $1 million hauls, but that information has started to trickle out from the individual campaigns.
In California, Andrew Janz announced this week that he raised $4.3 million in his bid to unseat Rep. Devin Nunes in California’s 22nd Congressional District, and Josh Harder said he pulled in $3.5 million in his race against Rep. Jeff Denham in California’s 10th Congressional District.
Amy McGrath said she pulled in $3.65 million in her race against Rep. Andy Barr in Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District, while Sharice Davids said she raised $2.7 million in her bid against Rep. Kevin Yoder in Kansas’ 3rd Congressional.
When it comes to overall party fundraising, the NRCC has trailed the DCCC this election cycle, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has outpaced the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
The Republican National Committee, however, has run circles around the Democratic National Committee.
The RNC announced in August that it had raised $16 million, setting a new monthly record in a nonpresidential year, surpassing the $250 million mark for the election cycle and leaving it with $42 million in the bank.
The DNC, meanwhile, has raised less than $125 million. It had less than $8 million cash on hand and $7 million in debt, according to finance reports.
Charlie Cook, of The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan elections tracker, said Mr. Lujan’s announcement bodes well for House Democrats in the Nov 6 elections, when control of both chambers is at stake.
“There are all kinds of metrics pointing to Democrats now having a strong edge in control of the House, candidate fundraising is just one of them,” Mr. Cook said.
Mr. Cook said the challenge for Republicans is that much more of their money is being spent by the party committees and GOP-aligned super PACs that have to pay more to run television ads, while stations have to charge candidates their lowest rates.
“Because of that, candidates get far more bang for their buck than parties or super PACs,” he said. “It is still possible that Republicans can hold their House majority, just increasingly unlikely.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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