'We will lose winnable seats': GOP panicking over 'massive financial disparity' with Dems

03 September 2024

The 2024 election isn't just expensive in the battle for the White House: Down-ballot candidates are also raising huge sums in their efforts to decide which party controls Congress. And Republicans are worried given how Democrats are beating them in the money race.

According to Politico, the GOP is sounding the alarm bell about Democrats lapping them in the latest campaign finance data. Currently, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) — which is helmed by Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana) — is urging donors to cough up $35 million more in order to be competitive through November. And its House campaign counterpart is trailing the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee by $37 million in the final stretch of the election cycle as Republicans fight to keep control of the House of Representatives.

"“The only thing preventing us from having a great night in November is the massive financial disparity our party currently faces,” NRSC executive director Jason Thielman told Politico. “We are on a trajectory to win the majority, but unless something changes drastically in the next six weeks, we will lose winnable seats.”

At the end of 2023, Republicans had the wind at their backs in their efforts to retake control of the U.S. Senate, which they can do by flipping two Democratic-held seats. When Sen. Joe Manchin (I-West Virginia) announced his plans to retire, it effectively assured a Republican victory in the Mountain State, which has been reliably Republican in every presidential election of the 21st century.

Now, Republicans' best hopes of flipping the Senate are in the red states of Montana and Ohio, which former President Donald Trump easily won in both 2016 and 2020. Between Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jon Tester (D-Montana), the latter is the most vulnerable, and is the clear underdog in polls with Republican candidate Tim Sheehy. However, Tester has raised nearly $43 million this cycle according to OpenSecrets and has more than $10 million in cash on hand. Sheehy has just $3 million in cash on hand and trails Tester in the overall money race by approximately $30 million.

Elsewhere, Democratic Senate candidates are raising far more than their Republican opponents. Politico reported that Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) has a $57 million lead over Republican Kari Lake as they compete to fill the seat being vacated by the outgoing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona). Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada) are also running up the score in their respective fundraising efforts, each with a $41 million edge over their GOP competition.

Republicans are also hoping to shore up their fundraising efforts in various key House races, as the GOP holds just a narrow single-digit majority in the lower chamber of Congress. Politico reported that while the Republican-controlled Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) has spent $140 million on ads supporting Republican House candidates, the Democratic House Majority PAC has reserved more than $210 million in ad buys.

“CLF is doing great. But they can only withstand so much disparity,” an unnamed House GOP aide told Politico. “There’s a breaking point where they can’t make up that gap.”

Vice President Kamala Harris' emergence as the new Democratic nominee has appeared to have strengthened Democrats' down-ballot fundraising efforts even further. In just the first 24 hours after President Joe Biden exited the 2024 race, Harris' campaign announced a record-breaking haul of roughly $250 million.

It's likely the Harris campaign could transfer money to down-ballot races in the final months of the election in her efforts to keep the Senate in Democratic hands and flip the House and possibly enter the White House with the ability to pass legislation with minimal GOP disruption. She would be the third consecutive Democratic president to do so, as Obama did in 2009 and Biden did in 2021.

Click here to read Politico's report in full.

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