The Democratic National Committee on Monday announced a series of investments in state parties and local organizers in 11 states that likely won’t be competitive on the presidential level this fall, but where Democrats are trying to secure down-ballot victories.

What You Need To Know

  • The Democratic National Committee on Monday announced a series of investments in state parties and local organizers in 11 states that likely won’t be competitive on the presidential level this fall, but where Democrats are trying to secure down-ballot victories
  • The relatively small figure — less than $2 million in new funding and around $20 million total this election cycle — is intended to go a long way in bolstering state legislative contests, building local party infrastructure and hiring organizers for specific voting groups
  • Democratic operations in Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington will benefit from the latest round of funding
  • Under the last Democratic president, Barack Obama, Democrats lost a net of 948 legislative seats across the country

The relatively small figure — less than $2 million in new funding and around $20 million total this election cycle — is intended to go a long way in bolstering state legislative contests, building local party infrastructure and hiring organizers for specific voting groups, including renters in Minnesota, rural voters in a competitive Nebraska congressional district and Native American communities in South Dakota.

“Everywhere Democrats are on the ballot this November – from the school board to the White House – we’re fighting to win,” DNC Chair Jamie Harrison said in a statement. “As we work hand in hand with the Biden-Harris campaign to hold the White House, we’re investing now to build infrastructure and win big up and down the ballot because we know the stakes couldn’t be higher.”

Democratic operations in Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington will benefit from the latest round of funding. 

Under the last Democratic president, Barack Obama, Democrats lost a net of 948 legislative seats across the country — “the largest loss of Democratic seats during any presidency since at least 1921,” according to the nonprofit political encyclopedia Ballotpedia. In the 50 U.S. states’ legislative bodies, Republicans held more seats in 83 of 99 chambers after the 2016 general election than the party did after Obama’s first presidential victory in 2008, Ballotpedia’s analysis shows.

Harrison and the DNC boasted on Monday that the investments they have made in local party infrastructure were “historic” and the “largest-ever,” but that $20 million represents less than 9% of the roughly $225 million the national party raised between the beginning of 2023 and the end of April 2024, according to the latest publicly available campaign finance records.

Largely, the national committee exists as an organ of President Joe Biden’s campaign to get him reelected. Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez described the relationship as a “deep partnership” with a “one-team, one-fight mentality” last year and their messaging efforts are nearly always in line. But the party has invested money and manpower into local races in recent years to help fight for control of statehouses, governor’s mansions and state court seats, as well as lay “a solid foundation for 2024 — from President Biden’s reelection to down-ballot races nationwide,” as Harrison noted in a public memo in May.

One of the larger chunks of funding is being allocated to Maryland, where the DNC is spending $250,000 on campaign staff and organizers through the summer and the fall for Angela Alsobrooks’ Senate campaign. The county executive is running against former Gov. Larry Hogan, a centrist Republican and prolific fundraiser who raised over $3.1 million in the first seven weeks of his campaign earlier this year.

Colorado and Minnesota, two solidly blue states expected to vote for Biden, will get investments in the “six figures,” the DNC said. In Colorado, the focus will be on young voters in a state where voters ages 18-29 participated in the 2022 midterms at a higher rate than all but four states. And the DNC is hiring two full time staffers to target and organize apartment dwellers in Minneapolis where more than half of the city’s population lives in multi-unit buildings, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In competitive congressional races in Washington, $66,000 of DNC funds will go to Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and youth organizing. South Dakota Democrats will receive $70,000 for their push to register voters in Native American communities. And in Nebraska, where Omaha lawmaker Tony Vargas is trying to oust Rep. Don Bacon, $40,000 will be paid to fund an organizer for rural voters in the state’s 2nd Congressional District. 

And in Texas, where Democrats have long sought a return to statewide success and where Rep. Colin Allred is mounting a longshot bid against Sen. Ted Cruz, the DNC is investing $140,000 for organizing staff “to organize communities in diverse Texas regions.”

“This November, we’re going to shock the world. We’re going to beat Ted Cruz. We’re going to elect leaders like Michelle Vallejo to Congress,” Allred said during his keynote address at the Texas Democratic convention over the weekend. “We’re going to flip seats in the statehouse and the Senate, electing new leaders up and down the ballot.”