RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesJust when they seemed poised to take back the House, Democrats are in the red on cash and facing an internal ideological fight, all with less than 100 days until November’s midterm elections, Eric Garcia writes
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O ver the weekend, the Democratic National Committee saw two potentially devastating stories, one in The New York Times and the other in NOTUS , reporting that the committee focused on helping Democrats win elections, is broke.
NOTUS reported that the DNC — which is $2 million in debt — put up its physical headquarters as collateral. The Times reported that the committee’s finances were so bleak, the party has asked vendors not to send bills until the midterm ends.
The knives immediately came out for the committee and specifically, its chairman Ken Martin. “There are a number of great democratic leaders who can very competently, brilliantly and strategically lead the DNC. And they’re all women,” Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas said on X. Rufus Gifford, a longtime Democratic moneyman who ran finance for Kamala Harris’ campaign, warned on Substack that the “DNC is spiraling towards irrelevance.”
The numbers are also clear. The DNC is in the red, having raised only $16 million in June while being $18 million in debt. By contrast, the Republican National Committee raised $16.7 million in June and has zero debt. It’s at least one reason why Republican consultants are not sweating the midterms, when historically, the party in power loses at least one chamber of Congress.
And this is coming at a moment when the country is pretty sick of Donald Trump — which should be a reason to rejoice for Democrats looking to take back the House.
A Fox News survey last week of the generic ballot — which shows whether voters will vote for a generic Democrat or Republican for Congress — showed that Democrats have a seven-point lead. The Economist and YouGov showed a five-point lead. Emerson showed an 11-point lead.
But all of that means nothing if Democrats don’t have the money to capitalize on the national mood and hunger for change. On top of all that, the national party is in a tug of war as moderates try to make their case in swing states and districts that voted for Trump in 2024, while left-wing Democrats want to have a larger ideological fight within the party.
Some of this was always inevitable. When a party loses the House, Senate and the White House, its voters tend to revolt as much against their own leadership as they do against the other party. Look no further than the Tea Party rebellion in the GOP after the election of President Barack Obama. That not only created an on-ramp for Donald Trump — it helped form the first inklings of the MAGA movement.
Now, Democratic voters in deep-blue districts are raving mad at their party leadership, whom they believe failed to defeat Trump two out of three times. They are electing socialist or socialist-adjacent candidates, which comes with a risk as more centrist candidates in swing districts get tagged with the label.
And now lefties are seeking to run in swing-state and swing-district races. In Michigan’s Senate race, local and national leadership has coalesced around Rep. Haley Stevens as their anointed candidate to stave off Abdul El-Sayed, a pro-Medicare-for-All, left-wing candidate endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
If El-Sayed wins, Democrats will likely have to spend money in Michigan that they otherwise would spend in Ohio, Texas and Alaska.
Then there’s Wisconsin, where Democrats have failed to coalesce around an alternative to socialist state legislator Francesca Hong as they have a once-in-a-generation chance to gain a trifecta this year.
And in Maine, insurgent candidate Graham Platner won the Democratic nomination to challenge longtime incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins. After a quick defenestrating when sexual assault allegations piled on a slew of baggage he carried into the race became too much, Democrats have now nominated former Maine Senate president Troy Jackson, giving themselves a little less than 100 days to steer the ship in what should be an auto-flip.
This inevitably forces a DNC — to say nothing of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — strapped for cash into a tight spot: not only do the three committees have fewer resources to fight MAGA; they have to spend some of that money to prop up incumbents.
A saving grace for Democrats is that while their voters may not like the party itself, they are more than willing to give cash to individual candidates.
As of Monday, ActBlue, the fundraising platform for Democrats, showed that the top for the week included Senate candidates Jackson in Maine, El-Sayed in Michigan, Sen Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), James Talarico in Texas and former Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio. In Alaska, former Rep. Mary Peltola raised a whopping $7 million.
But that means that party committees have less control of money that could go to sleeper races that might not animate voters as much, but could prove crucial to flipping the House and Senate. By contrast, Republican donors seem to give money directly to the committees so even if they find candidates like the scandal-ridden Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton unsavory, they trust the party to funnel money to Texas.
Democrats might be able to ride the wave into the House and Senate because voters are just that angry. But the party will likely need a serious overhaul before the 2028 presidential-year races to avoid a similar malaise it faces now.
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