Democrats are counting on their huge fundraising machine, which is outpacing the House GOP campaign arm, to take back the lower chamber.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has raised $179 million since January and now has $75.9 million cash on hand. The National Republican Congressional Committee raised over $134 million and has $59.8 million cash on hand, according to federal records.
House Democrats have outraised Republicans each month for the last six months, despite the Republican standard-bearer, former President Donald Trump, consistently topping President Biden in the polls.
DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene of Washington touted the fundraising prowess as a major reason why House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York will be the next speaker.
“With only six months to go before Election Day, House Democrats are ensuring we have the resources to take back the majority, make Hakeem Jeffries Speaker, put an end to the chaos, and get the government back to work for families,” she said. “As House Republicans continue to put partisan politics over people at the behest of Donald Trump, voters are increasingly fed up with extremism and dysfunction.”
The DCCC has had a cash advantage over the NRCC but that has not stopped the Republicans from flipping seats, according to a recent NRCC memo.
During the 2020 and 2022 cycles, Republicans picked up 15 seats and nine seats, respectively, despite having less money in the bank.
The memo shows that the DCCC is at its worst comparative cash-on-hand position to the NRCC in the last three cycles and that the Democrat House campaign arm has the lowest cash-on-hand number of any of the last three cycles.
Additionally, Democrats’ efforts to win more seats through court-ordered redistricting in New York, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Wisconsin did not produce their desired results.
The DCCC did not respond to a request for comment.
Election analysts say that Democrats need to work harder to win more seats than Republicans to take back the majority with “Republicans needing to win just two of the 10 Toss-up races to get to 218,” but “Democrats need to win nine of 10 Toss-up races to get to 218,” wrote Inside Election’s Nathan Gonzales recently.
Democrats have some reason for optimism: Mr. Biden previously won five toss-up districts in New York, California and Oregon currently held by Republicans by an average of 55%.
Democratic also poured money and effort into redistricting process, only to be disappointed when seats didn’t flip Democrat, such as in New York where only one GOP seat went slightly bluer.
“After Democrats spent millions suing to kickstart the redistricting process over again for 2024, many on the left are wondering, ’All this trouble for that?’” Cook Political Report election analyst Dave Wasserman wrote in February.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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