Democratic state campaign arm deploys $2.2M investment

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) rolled out a $2.2 million investment in battleground states at the state legislature level on Wednesday. 

The latest investment pours $1.1 million into the effort to keep Michigan’s state House and $500,000 into Pennsylvania’s state House. In New Hampshire, where Republicans control both chambers of the state legislature, the DLCC is pouring $250,000 into efforts to flip the state House and $100,000 to flip the state Senate. 

The efforts to win over both of North Carolina’s state legislature chambers, which are also controlled by Republicans, will respectively receive $60,000, while both of Wisconsin’s chambers, controlled by Republicans, will each receive $24,000. The committee will also invest $50,000 in the effort to maintain control of Minnesota’s House of Representatives. 

The investment follows the committee’s June rollout of its “Summer of the States” campaign, which includes a total commitment of $10 million in new investments in battleground states.

“We’re making the first of our investments right now,” said Anastasia Apa, vice president of development at the DLCC, on Wednesday. “As we continue through the cycle and are able to collect more data about where we can make the most strategic and impactful investment, we will continue this spend.” 

The effort comes as Democrats experience a boost of energy, following President Biden’s decision to drop out of the presidential race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the party’s nominee. 

Apa said it was “too soon” to tell what impact the top of the ticket would have on down-ballot races. However, she cautioned Democrats not to become complacent about down-ballot races, pointing to the party’s performance in 2020. While Democrats that year won at the presidential and Senate levels and held their majority in the House, Republicans won two new majorities at the state level. Democrats did not gain majorities at the state level in 2020. 

“Back in 2020 Biden won and at this level of the ballot we lost ground,” Apa said. “Democrats cannot afford a repeat of 2020. We cannot afford to ignore the funding and resourcing at this level of the ballot.”