The National Republican Congressional Committee raised $7.2 million last month, nearly 40% less than the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which raised $11.5 million in February and entered March with $10 million more to spend on midterm elections in 2022 than the House GOP campaign arm.
The NRCC’s February fundraising haul was respectable. The group finished the month with a healthy $15.7 million in the bank to spend toward flipping control of the House and zero debt to pay off from the last election cycle. But the House Republican war chest nonetheless fell short of the DCCC’s $25.9 million, although the Democratic group still has $11 million in debt to clear from its books.
House Republicans are just a handful of seats shy of the majority, and the party that holds the White House typically loses seats in midterm elections. So, the Democrats’ fundraising advantage over the GOP is crucial. Without that, their chances of defying history and retaining the speaker’s gavel in President Joe Biden’s first midterm election might be close to impossible.
HOUSE DEMOCRATS ANNOUNCE BIGGEST FUNDRAISING FEBRUARY IN MIDTERM HISTORY
Since 1980, only President George W. Bush in 2002 and President Bill Clinton in 1998 saw their parties gain seats in midterm contests.
- 1982: President Ronald Reagan — Republicans lose 26 House seats and 1 Senate seat.
- 1986: Reagan — Republicans lose 5 House seats and 8 Senate seats.
- 1990: President George H.W. Bush — Republicans lose 7 House seats and 1 Senate seat.
- 1994: Clinton — Democrats lose 54 House seats and 8 Senate seats.
- 1998: Clinton — Democrats gain 5 House seats. No change in the Senate.
- 2002: President George W. Bush — Republicans gain 8 House seats and 2 Senate seats.
- 2006: Bush — Republicans lose 31 House seats and 6 Senate seats.
- 2010: President Barack Obama — Democrats lose 63 House seats and 7 Senate seats.
- 2014: Obama — Democrats lose 13 House seats and 9 Senate seats.
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In 2018, under former President Donald Trump, Republicans lost 41 House seats, giving back the majority they earned in 2010. However, Republicans picked up two Senate seats, although those gains came from solid-red states. The Democrats flipped Senate seats in Arizona and Nevada, two competitive battleground states.
