Democrats have raised so much money since Kamala Harris became their presidential nominee that even Republican strongholds like Idaho and West Virginia are starting to benefit.
On Friday, the Democratic National Committee announced it was making a new multi-million-dollar investment in two-dozen states, much of it earmarked for grassroots get-out-the-vote operations less than six weeks before Election Day. But rather than focus exclusively on the presidential race in key battleground states, some of the spending is meant to help Democrats in local races running in states considered uncompetitive at the federal level.
In Idaho, for example, the party said it is spending $70,000 to hire organizers in tribal communities. In West Virginia, it’s investing another $50,000 in GOTV operations to help flip four seats in the state legislature. States like Tennessee, North Dakota, Arkansas and Kansas are also included in the new round of expenditures, according to the DNC.
The overall investment — $2.5 million — is relatively small in the context of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent during a presidential campaign, and it still includes funding for efforts in top-tier swing states like Pennsylvania. But it’s a sign that party leaders, flush from a surge in donations over the last two months, are confident they have enough cash to help Democratic candidates in under-the-radar contests.
“From the school board to the White House, the DNC is doing the work to elect Democrats to office at all levels of government,” Jaime Harrison, DNC chair, said in a statement. “We are the only committee responsible for building Democratic infrastructure to win elections across the map.”
In a press release, the committee said it had now sent money to all 57 states and territories this election cycle, the first time the group said it has ever done that.
Harris’ campaign alone raised $190 million in August, according to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission, far outpacing former President Donald Trump’s campaign and leading an overall boomlet in donations for Democrats across the board. The DNC raised $69 million last month, drastically exceeding its fundraising hauls from before Harris ascended to the top of the ticket. (In June of this year, the committee raised just $40 million.)
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Alex Roarty is a reporter at NOTUS.