Harris campaign shares the wealth with $25M boost for downballot Democrats
The Harris campaign announced Tuesday it is sending nearly $25 million to Democratic committees to invest in downballot candidates, using its significant fundraising haul to try to secure majorities in Congress.
The campaign said it was transferring $10 million each to the Democratic campaign arms of the Senate and the House, plus an additional $2.5 million to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which helps elect Democrats to state legislatures. The Harris campaign is also sending $1 million each to the Democratic Governors Association and the Democratic Attorneys General Association.
“If we want a future where every American’s rights are protected, not taken away; where the middle class is strengthened, not hollowed out; and a country where our democracy is preserved, not ripped apart, every race this November matters,” Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement. “The Vice President believes that this race is about mobilizing the entire country, in races at every level, to fight for our freedoms and our economic opportunity.”
Harris has been a fundraising juggernaut since she replaced President Biden atop the party's ticket. O'Malley Dillon said in a memo over the weekend that Harris had raised more than $540 million since she entered the race July 21, a historic amount for a candidate in that timeframe.
The vice president has already rolled out a handful of economic proposals for a potential presidential term, but those policies are unlikely to go anywhere without Democratic majorities.
Democrats are narrowly in the minority in the House and hold a slim majority in the Senate, and there they have to defend vulnerable seats in Montana, Ohio, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Tuesday's announcement allows Senate Democrats to "reach more voters, increase the strength of our campaigns and ensure Democrats protect our Senate majority."