WASHINGTON — Earlier this week, DLCC President Heather Williams and DLCC Political Director Jeremy Jansen hosted a press conference to discuss the most competitive state legislative battlegrounds and what to expect on Election Night. Every battleground chamber is expected to be decided by the slimmest of margins, and the DLCC is prepared for the results to come down to as few as a handful of votes. The DLCC also reflected on the challenges posed by the cycle and the work needed ahead to continue building Democratic power in the states.
Check out coverage of the DLCC’s presser below:
- “While the overlap has opened some opportunities for unprecedented collaboration, this environment has also produced steep challenges for state legislative candidates to get their message out, especially through paid communication,” Williams told reporters on a press call today.
- Williams noted that the Harris campaign was now spending more on paid ads each week than the DLCC’s entire budget for this election cycle, which is $60m. The gap in resources could heighten the risk of “ballot rolloff”, the phenomenon of voters only filling out the top of their ballot without continuing down to lower-level races.
- “Our historical data indicates that, in presidential years, we face the challenge of ballot rolloff most acutely,” Williams said. “Communicating and educating voters on who their state legislative candidates are is incredibly important to mitigate underperforming the top of the ticket.”
The Washington Post: Democrats warn voters not to ignore state races
- Williams warned that, because the presidential race battleground states are virtually the same as the ones in which Democrats are defending legislative majorities, there’s a concern that key state races will be drowned out by the national race. She noted that, in this final stretch of the election, the Democratic presidential campaign “is spending more” than the DLCC’s entire cycle budget.
NOTUS: Numbers You Should Know
- Only a dozen seats will determine who controls the legislature across six states, according to Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. In Michigan, the House is up for grabs by two seats. In Minnesota, by four in the House and one in the Senate. In Arizona, it’s down to two seats in each chamber. And in Pennsylvania, the House majority is up for grabs by one seat.
- “The difference between a majority can come down to a seat or a few hundred votes,” Williams said on a press call on Wednesday.
The Minnesota Star-Tribune: DFL leaders join last-minute push to keep Minnesota government trifecta
- “Every battleground chamber is within razor-thin margins and could be decided by just a handful of votes,” DLCC President Heather Williams said during a call with reporters this week. “All our polling shows that this election will be incredibly close.”
New Hampshire Public Radio: Plenty at stake, including State House control, in NH’s down ballot races
- National money is flowing into New Hampshire races that could decide which party ends up in partisan control in Concord. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, a national group that focuses on State House races, is spending $1 million in hopes that Democrats here can regain control in the House, something they haven’t had since 2018. The same group is also targeting certain state Senate seats.
- “New Hampshire is one of the best opportunities for Democrats this year,” Heather Williams, the group’s president, told reporters in a conference call this week.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Politically Georgia
- Democrats suffered a shellacking at the polls in 2010 when Republicans flipped 20 state Legislatures. They’ve since learned from their mistake. Democrats made some gains in 2022, flipping chambers in Michigan and Minnesota. Now, they’re looking to protect those and flip some others.
- Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said 12 seats could control the fate of six legislative majorities on Election Day.
The DLCC is the official arm of the Democratic Party with the sole mission of building Democratic power in the states and setting the national agenda at the state level. Over the last decade, we have fought cycle-over-cycle to gain a dozen new legislative chamber majorities and we are leading the effort to bring national attention and investment to our ballot level. State legislatures are the building blocks of our democracy and have the closest connections to Americans’ day-to-day lives. From protecting fundamental freedoms and voting rights to growing the middle class, the DLCC and state legislators are moving the Democratic agenda forward and shaping the future of this country.
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