Entering Election Day, House Democrats have succeeded on every measure within our control and have kept every Democratic incumbent in a competitive position to win. Thanks to the DCCC’s record-breaking fundraising, first-ever voter registration effort and largest-ever investment on the airwaves, there is not a single Democrat in the country who is down for the count in a challenging year, and the DCCC is even pushing into Republican turf in a handful of districts.
In a tough political climate, the DCCC’s achievement stands out – especially with the historical trend that the President’s party loses an average of 29 seats in the second midterm.
Take a look at the numbers for yourself.
Fundraising: We have outraised the NRCC by $41.1 million ($172 million to $130.9 million), despite being in the minority. The DCCC has built record support from individual and grassroots supporters and dominated the NRCC on candidate fundraising.
- DCCC had the best fundraising cycle ever – raising more than $172 million to date.
- Raised nearly $12 million directly for candidates this cycle to compete with SuperPACs’ spending by using lowest unit rates for television.
- 1.5 million grassroots low-dollar donors made 4.2 million contributions.
- Reached $110 million in grassroots contributions.
- Average grassroots gift was $25.80, with 95 percent of donations $50 or less.
- The DCCC tripled the NRCC’s low dollar contributions, according to the FEC. The DCCC raised $69 million from contributors who’ve given less than $200, compared to the NRCC’s $23 million.
- This cycle, Leader Pelosi completed 750 fundraising and campaign events in 115 cities, which have raised a record $101.3 million for Democrats, including $65.2 million for the DCCC directly.
Airwaves: The DCCC ran its largest ad buy in committee history, with a tight focus that kept incumbents competitive against an onslaught of outside money. The DCCC IE quadrupled its digital advertising program to create a “second screen” for voters to see our messaging.
- The DCCC’s Independent Expenditure invested a record-breaking $67.25 million in 39 districts.
- In the 22 districts where the DCCC and NRCC both were on the air, the DCCC’s early reservations meant that the committee paid approximately 15 percent less for the same air time.
- The IE produced about 147 TV ads and 20 radio spots.
- The DCCC quadrupled our digital advertising, driving 28 million impressions that echoed our television message to as many as 88,000 voters per district.
Field: To get ahead of the midterm voter dropoff problem, the DCCC launched our first-ever voter registration program, successfully registering 80,000 new voters in our key districts. The DCCC doubled the size of our field program from previous cycles and put staff on the ground six months earlier than ever before.
- We have nearly 900 field staff members in 41 districts.
- Overall our field staff and volunteers have knocked over 6 million doors and called more than 32 million voters, for a total of 38.6 million voter contact attempts.
- In our key battlegrounds:
- California: 5 million phone calls made and over 660,000 doors knocked.
- Illinois: 2.6 million phone calls made and over 579,000 doors knocked.
- New York: 3.3 million phone calls made and over 625,000 doors knocked.
- Over the course of GOTV weekend, our field staff and volunteers knocked on over 820,000 doors and made over 1 million calls.