Democrats are trying to maintain their five-seat House advantage as support for President Joe Biden remains low.
To counteract the significant financial advantage held by groups affiliated with the Republican Party in the run-up to Election Day, Democratic officials are urging their supporters to raise their contributions to the party’s official campaign arm.
At the beginning of October, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the primary campaign arm of House Republicans, had $92.3 million available, while the Democrats had just $59.2 million.
As a result of this advantage and a recent Fox News poll showing Republicans having overtaken Democrats on the generic congressional ballot among potential voters, Democrats are attempting to raise more money.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer have both been aggressively lobbying for this week’s payment of DCCC dues (DCCC).
D.C. House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) wrote a letter to his fellow Democrats on Thursday, urging those from traditionally Democratic areas to donate or risk losing their majority.
Fox News Digital got a copy of Hoyer’s letter, in which he is cited as writing, “Having traveled to fifty-seven districts across twenty-six states so far this election season, I have observed the devotion and energy of our frontline incumbents and red-to-blue candidates firsthand.” They can win if they spend enough money.
California Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pledged to quadruple the amount of DCCC membership dues paid in the month of October. So far, the Speaker’s campaign and leadership PAC have raised around $37.8 million for the Democrats. A separate fundraising organization generated an additional $22.2 million for Pelosi and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).
The Democrats are spending a lot of money on this race, but they do not see a good return on their money. The Democrats’ five-seat advantage has been threatened by inflation at 40-year highs and President Biden’s low job popularity ratings.
Republican pollster Daron Shaw and Democratic pollster Chris Anderson collaborated on the Fox News study. Shaw predicts the Republicans will gain House seats even if the Democrats keep their current generic vote lead. These data point to a close race for the House of Representatives, but there is still a month until the election, and a late break in any direction may make a tremendous difference.
DCCC has raised more money than NRCC during the previous three months, but outside GOP groups have more overall.
The top super PAC working to flip the House to the Republicans, the Congressional Leadership Fund, raised $73 million between July and September. To put this in perspective, the Democratic House Majority PAC raised $55 million during this election season, whereas CLF has now raised over $220 million.
To rephrase: CLF is not swimming in cash. The super PAC has spent over $200 million to help Republican candidates and hurt Democrats. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was the focus of a recent $4 million ad buy.
President of the super PAC Dan Conston said, “The palpable passion we’ve experienced all cycle behind the campaign for a new majority is simply building in the last sprint.”
In order to narrow the fiscal deficit and mitigate the potential Republican tsunami in November, Democrats are banking on donations from incumbents in safe House districts.
Hoyer, who is pledging $100,000 to the DCCC, has said, “If, for example, all our non-frontline members paid 10% of their cash on hand, that would amount to nearly an extra $23 million that we could use to protect and grow our majority.”