Democrats are going into the last weeks before Election Day with a slight cash lead over Republicans as the two parties have been neck and neck in fundraising to control the House and Senate, recent federal filings show—with individual Democratic Senate candidates taking a bigger lead.
The US Capitol building as night falls on December 17, 2019 in Washington, DC.
The two main national committees raising money to elect Democrats to the House and Senate outraised the two main Republican committees as of Oct. 16, the latest date for which filings are available—raising $548.5 million in total this election cycle to Republicans’ $489 million and slightly widening their lead from September, when Democrats had outraised the GOP by $49.1 million.
That’s largely because of Democrats’ advantage in fundraising for House races—where the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has outraised its GOP counterpart by $78.8 million—while the National Republican Senatorial Committee has raised around $19.4 million more than the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
The main super PACs focused on electing Democrats to Congress, House Majority PAC and Senate Majority PAC, have also raised more than their GOP counterparts, with a combined $621.3 million fundraising haul as of Oct. 16 versus $515 million raised by the GOP’s Congressional Leadership Fund and Senate Leadership Fund.
Democrats’ Senate super PAC outraised Republicans’—taking in $329.7 million through mid-October to the GOP’s $282.2 million—and while the House GOP PAC, Congressional Leadership Fund, narrowly outraised Democrats’ House PAC prior to October, the Democrats’ House Majority PAC now has a $58.8 million lead over its Republican counterpart ($291.7 million to $232.9 million).
Democrats’ official committees—which can give directly to candidates and coordinate with their campaigns, unlike super PACs—reported having more cash on hand than Republicans, with $77.7 million in cash as of Oct. 16 while Republicans had $57.3 million.
Republican super PACs had more cash than Democrats as of mid-October, however, reporting $150.8 million to Democrats’ $135.5 million.
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$1.7 billion. That’s how much Democrats have reported raising in total through Oct. 16 between their two major national committees and two super PACs, beating out Republicans’ overall fundraising total of $1.4 billion.
How these totals have changed since they were last reported. The FEC filings released Thursday are the last figures released before Election Day, so it won’t be clear how much parties have raised between Oct. 17 and Nov. 5 until after the election.
While Democrats are more evenly matched with Republicans at the national level, the party has a greater fundraising advantage for Senate candidates facing close elections, as Democrats try to keep control of the chamber. FEC filings show the Democratic candidates in the top 10 most competitive Senate races this cycle—in Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin—have all outraised their Republican opponents, based on their official campaign committees. The four races rated “toss-ups” by the Cook Political Report have particularly high fundraising gaps: Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown has raised more than three times the amount of Republican opponent Bernie Moreno ($84.6 million to $24.2 million), while in Michigan, Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s Senate run has attracted $45.8 million in donations—more than four times the $9.7 million her opponent, Mike Rogers, has raised. In Wisconsin, Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin took in $52.3 million as of Oct. 16, nearly twice as much as opponent Eric Hovde, and Pennsylvania incumbent Sen. Bob Casey has raised $46.1 million to GOP rival Dave McCormick’s $27.7 million. The fundraising also isn’t necessarily in line with the polls: In Montana, for instance, incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is projected to narrowly lose his seat, even as he’s raised more than three times as much as opponent Timothy Sheehy ($88.1 million to $26.2 million). Despite Democratic candidates’ higher fundraising overall, some Republicans are going into the last weeks before Election Day with more cash on hand. That includes Texas Sen. Ted Cruz ($9.6 million in cash vs. $2.5 million for Democratic challenger Rep. Colin Allred), Arizona candidate Kari Lake ($4.5 million vs. $2.8 million for Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego) and GOP candidates in Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida.
The Democratic National Committee—which boosts Democratic candidates nationwide, not just at the congressional level—has also outraised the Republican National Committee, receiving $538.8 million through Oct. 16 versus $390.2 million raised by the RNC. Democrats also spent more of their cash, however, so the RNC had a cash advantage as of mid-October, holding $47.8 million in cash on hand as compared with $30 million for the DNC.
The amount that Democrats and Republicans are taking in for all congressional candidates across the country is roughly comparable to the nine-figure sums being raised just by Harris and former President Donald Trump. NBC News first reported in October that the Harris campaign and other affiliated groups have raised more than $1 billion just since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July, and the campaign has reported raising $997.2 million on its own as of Oct. 16. (That includes the amount raised by the Biden campaign before he dropped out, as the campaign committee was then renamed for Harris and she received all the funds.) The Trump campaign has only raised $388 million as of mid-October—and Harris also has Trump beaten when it comes to their cash piles as well, with $118 million in cash on hand as of Oct. 16 versus Trump’s $36.2 million.
Democrats and Republicans are in a tight battle for control of Congress this election cycle, as Republicans hold only a nine-seat majority in the House and Democrats narrowly have control of a divided Senate. FiveThirtyEight’s polling average shows Americans are divided on which party they want to have control of Congress, with 46.4% on average favoring Democrats as of Thursday while 45.9% prefer the GOP. Democrats face an unfavorable Senate map in November, as vulnerable Democrats Tester and Brown fight to hold their seats in conservative-leaning Montana and Ohio. The left’s only hope of picking up any seats appears to be in Florida and Texas, where Sen. Rick Scott and Cruz face strong Democratic challengers but are still widely favored to win.