House Republicans have a clear advantage over Democrats in fundraising for next year's election, marking a sharp contrast from the situation four years ago. Politico reported on Tuesday.
While 65 Republican candidates raised $500,000 or more in the second quarter compared to 40 Democrats, four years ago only 30 Republicans crossed that mark, compared to 50 Democrats.
"Over the last two cycles, House Republicans have fought to get to parity with Democrats when it comes to candidate dollars," House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told Politico in praising the work of the House GOP campaign arm, "We've turned a fundraising disadvantage into a massive strength," adding "that's a really big deal, but we got a lot of work left to do."
This advantage could be crucial for the House GOP, which has a margin of just five seats, and are defending a dozen and a half districts in territory friendly to President Joe Biden.
Of the 31 Republicans whom Democrats have targeted to defeat, three raised more than $1 million in the second quarter and many more came close. Meanwhile, none of the incumbents or leading candidates in three dozen Democrat-held seats that Republicans have vowed to oust crossed $1 million.
"While there's still time to address the fundraising gap, Democratic incumbents are going to need to step it up if they are serious about taking back the majority," said one Democrat strategist involved in House races.
But the good news for Democrats is that GOP challengers are not hauling in very impressive numbers in battleground seats. In fact, of those three-dozen targeted Democrats, only six have a Republican opponent who raised more than $200,000 during the second quarter, Politico reported.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Viet Shelton insisted in a statement to Politico that "Democrats are poised to take back the majority next year and will have the resources to do it as indicated by the DCCC consistently outraising Republicans this year."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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