ATLANTA (AP) — Democrats are trying to defend their slim Senate majority in tough races along Republican lines, pumping $25 million into voter outreach in 10 states.
The new spending by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, first shared with The Associated Press, comes less than two months before the Nov. 5 election, with Democrats benefiting from a surge in fundraising since President Joe Biden ended his re-election bid in July and endorsed Vice. President Kamala Harris as the party’s standard bearer.
“A great ground game makes all the difference in a close race,” DSCC chairman Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan said in a statement. “We will reach every voter we need to win.”
The latest ranking is divided among Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. The money will be used in efforts to defend five Democratic incumbents and open seats in Michigan, Maryland and Arizona, which are currently held by Democrats, and efforts to unseat GOP incumbents in Florida and Texas.
Plans for the money vary by state, but include hiring more salaried field organizers and researchers; Online digital organizing programs targeted at specific voter groups; SMS programs; and organizing events for younger generations and non-white voters in person.
Democrats currently hold a 51-49 advantage in the Senate, a split that includes independent senators who caucus with Democrats. But of the 33 regular Senate elections this November, Democrats have 23 seats to defend, including the independents who will caucus with them for a majority. They have devoted few national resources to West Virginia, a Republican-leaning state where Democratic-independent-turned-senator Joe Manchin is retiring.
The playing field gives Democrats little margin for error. If they lose West Virginia and hold all the other seats, they’d still have to upset Florida Sen. Rick Scott or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to get the majority or hope Harris wins the presidency — which would allow his running mate, Tim. Walz, to vote for Democrats for vice president, as Harris did in a 50-50 Senate split during the first two years of the Biden administration.
The DSCC declined to disclose the state-by-state distribution of the $25 million. But it’s no secret that defending the Democratic majority starts with tough re-election races for Sens. To Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Both are relatively popular, multi-term incumbents, but they are running in states that Donald Trump, the former president and current Republican nominee, has won comfortably twice. That means Tester and Brown would need a significant number of voters to split their ticket between Trump and their Senate choice.
Senate Democrats already have funded field offices in Montana and Ohio, which are not presidential battleground states where the Harris campaign is leading coordinated Democratic campaign operations. And while the money will come from national coffers, the extra on-the-ground spending bolsters the two Democratic senators’ strategy to distance themselves from Harris and the national party.
Five of the 10 states receiving the money overlap with the president’s battleground map: Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Biden won them all four years ago, while Trump won all but Nevada in 2016. Both presidential campaigns will see the states as tossups this fall.
The voter-seeking spending is tied to an ongoing $79 million advertising campaign by the Democratic Senate campaign group and builds on the staffing and infrastructure investments already made by the national party.
The spending comes after Harris, who has raised more than $500 million since taking the Democratic presidential ticket in July, announced plans to allocate $25 million to party committees focused on downvoting. The respective campaigns of Senate and House Democrats each received $10 million of that money, an acknowledgment that a Democratic majority on Capitol Hill would make a Harris presidency more successful and that Harris and downstate Democrats could help each other’s voting careers.
Democratic aides said on-the-ground spending was always in the Senate committee’s plans, but Harris’ reward will certainly expand options for all partisan campaign groups. Democrats believe they have a better campaign infrastructure than Trump and the rest of the GOP in a campaign year when the White House and control of Capitol Hill could be decided by party core supporters and a narrow band of persuasive voters.
Still, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has outraised Senate Democrats this cycle, even though Democrats had more cash on hand at the end of July, the most recent reporting period disclosed to the Federal Election Commission.
As of July 31, the NRSC had raised $181.3 million and spent $138.5 million. Republicans reported a balance of $51 million. Democrats had raised $154 million and spent $103.3 million. They report a balance of $59.3 million.
