The Democratic National Committee is investing more this year than it ever has before in the off-year after a presidential election, according to a new memo shared with NOTUS.
The memo highlights the DNC’s efforts in key elections next month in California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
DNC Chair Ken Martin said in the memo that the party is “bullish about Democrats’ chances across the board.”
“The wind is at our backs after a year of overperformances around the country, but we refuse to take anything for granted,” he wrote.
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The memo does not include a spending total but states the DNC has put more than $6 million total into gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, and “six figures” into the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. The DNC has also worked to boost the Prop 50 campaign in California in favor of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting proposal.
The DNC worked with the California Democratic Party on a “massive bilingual organizing blitz” and has mobilized its volunteers in the state through Election Day in support of the redistricting proposal, which would shift five House districts into competitive or easily winnable territory for Democrats.
Money from both parties has been pouring into California’s redistricting race, but Democrats’ Yes on 50 committee reported raising more than twice as much as the two No committees combined.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, reportedly told lawmakers he hoped to raise $100 million for the opposition campaign but has raised $7 million, Politico reported.
In Pennsylvania, the current 5-2 Democratically-leaning Supreme Court is facing an ideological shift with next month’s election.
The Republican State Leadership Committee has invested nearly $85,000 in campaigning against retaining Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht, citing their past rulings on pandemic restrictions and mail-in voting laws.
“The DNC has invested six figures into the Pennsylvania Democratic Party to support on-the-ground voter contact efforts and fund direct mail and paid media outreach to voters,” according to the memo.
The DNC invested $3 million in New Jersey, where Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill and former state Rep. Jack Ciattarelli will face off for governor.
It also invested $3 million in Virginia, where former Rep. Abigail Spanberger holds a steady lead in the governor’s race ahead of the state’s current Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears.
In both New Jersey and Virginia, the state’s Republican candidates have aligned themselves closely with MAGA’s policy priorities but only Ciattarelli has President Donald Trump’s official endorsement.
Martin said in the memo that “Trump is dragging down Republicans.”
“While Democrats are on offense, Republicans continue to struggle to defend Trump’s deeply unpopular Big Ugly Bill, which kicks millions of Americans off their health insurance in order to pay for massive tax cuts for billionaires,” according to the memo. “Trump and his agenda are so unpopular that Republicans in these states aren’t even campaigning with him.”
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