WASHINGTON — Over the weekend, the New York Times highlighted the steep historic odds and lack of resources the DLCC and state Democrats overcame on the path to victories in the states. As a result of this success, the DLCC is on track to make history — this will be the first midterm year the party in power hasn’t lost a single legislative chamber since at least 1934. In addition to defending Democratic ground, the DLCC picked up three chambers in Minnesota and Michigan and is on course for another victory in the Pennsylvania House.
New York Times: In the States, Democrats All but Ran the Table
At the outset of 2022, Democrats were especially focused on breaking up or forestalling Republican trifectas. Their fear: Republican election deniers could win full control of key swing states this year, then use their power corruptly to deliver the presidency to Donald Trump on a silver platter in 2024 …
“We started the cycle knowing we had to defend our chambers,” said Jessica Post, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. There would be no ambitious, potentially doomed forays into exotic territory like Texas, or pushes to flip Georgia. In a year that could easily have gone south for Democrats, she told her staff she wanted ‘no surprises’ …
Democrats are often outspent in state legislative races and have come to expect little or no help from the national party. In addition to the $50 million it raised directly — the going price of a modest Senate race — the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee essentially went scrounging for money in the couch cushions.
Post dispatched a three-person finance team to pore over the books of safe Democratic incumbents and cajole them into transferring money to their colleagues. That frugal strategy helped Democrats come up with more than $100 million from within the states they were targeting, Post said, including more than $20 million from Michigan Senate Democrats alone…
But in 2022, not a single state legislative chamber flipped from blue to red. A party in power hasn’t achieved that result in a midterm election year since at least 1934, according to Post.
The DLCC is the official Democratic Party committee dedicated to winning America’s state legislatures. This cycle, the committee raised $50 million at its fastest pace ever to elect state Democrats across the country. State legislatures are the building blocks of our democracy and pass the policies that have the biggest impact on Americans’ day-to-day lives.
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