New fundraising reports detail how much Democrats in competitive congressional races are benefiting from a wave of money flooding their campaigns after Vice President Kamala Harris rose to the top of the party ticket, and Republicans are scrambling to stretch their money in the final weeks of the election.
According to new reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, Democratic House and Senate candidates raised eye-popping amounts between July and September. They didn’t just outscore their GOP opponents, they swamped them.
Democratic candidates won an average of twice as much as Republican candidates in Senate and House races in the third quarter. Cook Political Report with Amy Walter rates are competitive. Democrats outscored Republicans in all 11 competitive Senate races and all but one of 26 House “throwaway” races.
In some cases, the gap was even wider. Three Democratic Senate candidates — Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Angela Alsbrooks of Maryland, and Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan — won more than four times as much as their Republican opponents during that period.
The fundraising boon also allowed Democrats to outscore their GOP rivals in key races from July to September. In the Senate, Democratic candidates spent 244 million dollars, and Republicans spent 91.5 million dollars. And House Democratic candidates spent $132 million to Republicans’ $61.6 million in races rated “over the hill” or “leaning” toward one party.
Candidates from both parties in the Senate race ended September with roughly the same amount of cash — Democrats had just $47.5 million in their campaign accounts, while Republicans had $44.8 million. The gap was even wider in competitive House races, with Democrats finishing the quarter with $80.8 million to Republicans’ $59.2 million.
If former President Donald Trump wins the White House (because the vice president has tied votes) and Harris is elected, the GOP needs to win just one seat to take control of the Senate. The race for the House is also tight, as Democrats need a net gain of four seats for a majority.
Republicans they sounded the alarm especially about his own candidate’s fundraising since Harris became the de facto Democratic presidential nominee. And they have tried to combat the Democrats’ financial advantage by using a variety of means to stretch their candidates’ limited funds.
Both the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee use the word hybrid adsThe NRSC began to apply more aggressively in the 2022 midterm elections. For these seats, the committees split the cost of the ad with the candidate, allowing the ad to be purchased at a lower candidate rate rather than at a higher price for the outside group only. However, the essence of the announcement should cover national issues as well as specific candidates.
So while this strategy places limits on the content of these ads, Republicans don’t see that as a problem as they work to nationalize these down-ballot races.
Democrats are also running hybrid ads, but Republicans in particular see the tactic as a way to help their candidates fend off the Democratic onslaught. That money can still only go so far, as candidates still have to shoulder some of the costs of these seats.
Senate Republicans are also using new tactics to counter Democratic on-air messaging for their candidates. They used it joint fundraising committeesor groups that allow more than one candidate or group to raise funds through a single entity, those committees publish advertisements that contain a solicitation of funds.
Democrats tried to block that tactic by asking the FEC to weigh in. The panel deadlocked on the issue last week, allowing the practice to continue, raising concerns among Democrats bracing for a late influx of GOP money in these races.
“It will basically increase the amount of money [is] it’s going to come into our elections this cycle, but forever,” Slotkin, a Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, said in an interview with NBC News last week. “Basically, it’s rough. And Democrats have an advantage with small dollar campaign donations. Republicans have more billionaires and millionaires. … So , really diminishes our advantage on television.”
But Democrats have hinted they could use the tactic to launch their own ads.
“Unlike Republicans, [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee] and Senate Democratic campaigns have asked the FEC for clear guidance on this practice, which the FEC has failed to provide, said DSCC spokesman David Bergstein. “Moving forward, the DSCC is committed to ensuring that our campaigns do not operate at a disadvantage in the final weeks of the campaign and will use the same tactics used by Republicans on joint committee advertising.”
While candidates and campaign committees battle it out on the airwaves, super PACs are also losing millions of dollars fighting for Congress.
Senate Majority PAC, the main Democratic caucus for Senate races, reported raising $119 million in the third quarter. Its largest single donation, $5 million, came from financial strategist Michelle Chan, while other prominent Democrats, including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, have also donated to the group.
His GOP counterpart, the Senate Leadership Fund, has raised $116 million, including contributions from several Republican megadonors such as Ken Griffin, Paul Singer and Steve Schwartzman.
The Congressional Leadership Fund, the main GOP super PAC involved in House races, raised $81.5 million from July to September with contributions from megadonors Tim Mellon and Miriam Adelson.
Its Democratic counterpart, House Majority PAC, prefers to submit fundraising reports monthly rather than quarterly. The group raised a total of $31.6 million in funds from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in July and August and is due to file its September report by Sunday.