As much as there is in-fighting and struggling to fund GOP in swing-state races for the U.S. Senate, it would appear that major donors for the Democratic Party are signaling that there is no point fighting for the U.S. House.
According to POLITICO, there are several House seats where the GOP is vulnerable – like Rep. Mike Garcia in California’s 25th Congressional District – where no money is being spent. House Democrats are panicking over the decision to leave Republicans like Garcia virtually untouched in a year where the data is still indicating a major red wave.
The problem isn’t campaigns, though. It’s money.
Via the POLITICO piece:
The decision, according to those involved, was driven by a relative lack of resources: As Republicans’ biggest House super PAC floods the election with hundreds of millions of dollars, their Democratic counterparts have lagged far behind. Some members of the California Democratic delegation were alarmed by the decision to leave Garcia’s district untouched — and they have urged their party’s campaign arm in recent weeks not to abandon a seat that President Joe Biden won by double digits, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions.
Similar pleas are com ing from Texas, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, as frustrated Democrats bemoan that their party’s outside groups are unable — or, some say privately, unwilling — to devote precious funds toward what they see as winnable seats.
The fact that this is in Nancy Pelosi’s own backyard, in Garcia’s case, is extremely telling. The donor class of the Democratic Party is struggling to find a reason to try and flip seats in a year when most analysts are predicting the House will flip to the GOP.
House Democrats’ panic has escalated this month as GOP outside groups continued to smash fundraising records. Despite high candidate fundraising, Democrats have been unable to respond with the same volume of money, and the party has struggled to free up the resources to attack potentially endangered Republican incumbents — a crucial part of their strategy, since they need to offset expected losses in more conservative Democratic-held districts.
It’s a pretty clear sign that Democratic donors are just giving up, and this report comes on the heels of yesterday’s disastrous inflation report. There is virtually no chance that the donors are up to save a party that is in this deep.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
This sentiment also matches a lot of the polling you’ll see. There’s not much excitement for the Democrats on the issues that affect Americans most: Inflation, gas prices, and the economy as a whole. With yesterday’s inflation news being the last major inflation report before the midterm elections take place, it’s pretty much ingrained in the minds of Americans that, despite passing an “Inflation Reduction Act,” the Democrats have only made the situation worse.
And the people who choose to spend their money on campaigns and elections don’t see much value in supporting a party that almost appears dead set on losing this one. They focused on all the wrong issues and picked fights over things Americans didn’t care about.
Sure, those Democratic donors feel the same way that the Democratic Party does on the issues of abortion, Donald Trump, and social issues, but they also know there’s just no strategic value in investing in the party right now. Instead, they’ll hold on to their money until the next election cycle because they want to support the Democrats keeping the White House at all costs.
It speaks to either the level of dedication to the campaigns or the level of delusion that a lot of Democrats think they can not only hold close races but actually flip a lot of seats. It would be one thing if they were just focused on maintaining. But to actually try to aggressively go after GOP seats in the current climate is just a poor use of resources. I don’t blame the donors for not wanting to go along with it.