AMAC Exclusive – By Andrew Abbott
After lofty predictions of an historic “red wave” in this November’s midterm elections fell woefully short, Democrats and the mainstream media began celebrating the results as a “blue wall” blunting GOP gains. But a critical part of the story of the 2022 election cycle wasn’t about red or blue, but another color – green.
According to new financial disclosures, the Democrat Party outspent the GOP by a staggering amount in key races. With corporate America and the country’s elites now firmly in the grip of left-wing ideology, Democrat candidates enjoy access to vast pools of fundraising wealth, and it showed in this year’s campaigns, as ads for Democrat candidates and dishonest attacks on Republicans blanketed the airwaves. Democrats also benefitted from robust grassroots fundraising efforts – creating a gap that Republicans desperately need to close in order to be competitive in future elections.
A look at a few top Senate races shows just how badly Republicans were outspent by their Democrat opponents. In Arizona, for example, incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly went head-to-head with Republican Blake Masters. Despite the race being a top pickup target for the GOP, Kelly raised $81.8 million to Masters’s $12.3 million – a more than six-to-one ratio. Kelly ultimately won by less than 200,000 votes even with this extreme disparity.
Other GOP candidates in tight races were similarly drastically outspent. In Nevada, Democrat Catherine Cortez-Masto lapped Republican Adam Laxalt nearly four to one. In Pennsylvania, an effort largely led by outside “dark money” groups backed Democrat candidate John Fetterman with $35 million in spending. Republican candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz, meanwhile, only enjoyed $15 million in support. In Georgia, Democrat Raphael Warnock raised an eye-popping $150 million to Republican Herschel Walker’s $58 million.
Even in the few places where Republicans did well, they were often outspent by their Democrat opponents. In Ohio, first-time Republican candidate JD Vance won the seat of the retiring Rob Portman by defeating Democrat Congressman Tim Ryan. Still, Ryan outraised Vance nearly four-to-one, spending $56 million to Vance’s $14 million. In Florida, where incumbent Republican Marco Rubio trounced Democrat challenger Val Demings, Demings raised $79 million to Rubio’s $50 million.
Total spending on the 2022 midterms – which includes party spending as well as outside groups like PACs and SuperPACs – exceeded $16.7 billion, setting a new record for midterm contests. Democrat candidates outspent Republicans by about $100 million, $979,863,287 to $881,034,871. That gap translated to limiting the GOP to a narrow House majority, an expanded Democrat Senate majority, and two Democrat pickups in governor’s races.
Many conservatives are now questioning how Democrats were able to so heavily outraise and outspend Republicans, especially in Senate races, after things looked so promising for the GOP earlier in the year. Moreover, after being outraised and outspent in 2020 as well, an alarming pattern is beginning to emerge for the GOP.
One explanation is the increasing stranglehold that the left has over corporate America. For example, labor unions – which today more often than not reflect the interests of elites rather than rank-and-file workers – sent $51 million to Democrats and just $7 million to Republicans. Well over 90 percent of donations from employees of Big Tech companies went to Democrats, while white-collar industries like the legal field and investment banking also favored Democrats.
Democrats also enjoy the support of several ultra-wealthy donors who fund races at every level of government. George Soros continued his trend of being the largest individual political donor again this cycle, donating some $128 million to Democrats and liberal causes. Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former head of cryptocurrency company FTX, added another $40 million for Democrat candidates.
As the Republican Party increasingly becomes a party of middle and working-class voters, small-dollar fundraising has become more important, but even here Democrats hold an edge through fundraising platforms like “ActBlue,” which has largely been more successful than the Republican platform “WinRed.”
It may well be that the current period is a transitionary one for the GOP, where the party shifts its fundraising strategy and focus in order to match its new base of support. It’s also worth remembering that fundraising isn’t everything. After all, Hillary Clinton outraised Donald Trump by a factor of more than two-to-one in 2016 and still lost. Candidate quality matters, as does how each fundraising dollar is spent.
But Republicans nonetheless need to come up with some solutions to their fundraising disadvantage – and soon. Democrats already control nearly every key American institution, from Hollywood and big business to the mainstream media. If they command a massive fundraising edge as well, Republicans’ chances of winning any election, no matter how favorable the political environment, are slim at best.
Andrew Abbott is the pen name of a writer and public affairs consultant with over a decade of experience in DC at the intersection of politics and culture.
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We NEED a Red Wave as in Blood Red to stop our Country from being Communised!
We might be smart to start limiting the amount of money each candidate can use to run. It is way out of control and entirely unnecessary. Also, limiting the mail in ballots and having them marked in a special way and narrow the early voting and NO drop boxes unless at an official location. All four of these changes could go a long way to leveling the playing field.
Do republicans need to do a better job? Absolutely! But, to say there was not a red wave when there was more election fraud and manipulation is ridiculous. Until we have fair and just elections that are transparent and visible, we can’t tell who actually won. For all the election deniers, get your head out of the sand and look at the reality of who is in charge here.
Think Bernie has a wind farm at one of his three mansions? There’s a reason these green energy projects are never built in rich, white Democrat neighborhoods.
The Green fantasy world will be the destruction of us, long before we run out of energy from the ground. Solar can’t provide it. Wind cannot provide it. Nuclear can- but the Greenies are afraid of it. Even Hydro electric is limited. Oil and gas and coal can do it for another 300 years. The planet will do fine.It has for eons.
One reason Blake Masters lost to Mark Kelly, other than many Republicans falling victim to the election day shenanigans of SOS/Gov candidate Hobbs, was the fact that Mitch McConnell pulled the rug out from under him, with McConnell quoted as essentially saying that he’d rather be the minority leader than risk losing his leadership seat if there were a red wave of Trump endorsed candidates.
Oh, McConnell will lose his seat. Just watch in 2023 and the years to come of how much information will come out about the treasonous acts of those who claimed to be for America. Mitch is just an extension of the socialist/democrat party. Good riddance!
1) we are like Russia & Red China- we have One party. The DemoPublican Party. The U.S. House, Senate , Executive and Judicial Branches ARE the problem.
They break the Law continually by Violation of their Oath of Office.
How ? Because Public education has created Citizens that do Not know their rights and trust government. The corporations and major Media Lobby/ Bribe these traitorous Politicians to further their own agenda.
We “ think” we vote. A wise communist once said- it is good to let the people vote. It matters not. What Matters is that ‘we’ count the votes. Start considering a boycott of goods or services from major corporations !! Hit them in the pocketbook.
Withdraw kids from public schools. Then do either church schools, military schools, private, or Homeschool. Run for town Council, County Commissioner, Sheriff !!
State legislature. Do something.
1) Ban all corporate donations to political races. Money can only come from individuals
2) Keep political donations local. Money spent on political campaigns is limited to what can be raised in state. No national party donations to individual races. Obviously, races for president and Vice President are exceptions. Candidates must draw their financial support from their constituents.
3) No dark money, no foundation money, no hidden income streams. All donated dollars have individual names attached to them so that the voting public knows exactly who owns their politicians and who supported them
These three things would go a long way towards cleaning up our elections
Can’t agree more.
If this is a true representational government, then I say IF you can NOT vote for the person, because they are outside your election zone, then one should NOT be able to give the candidate any money or support. All politics should be local.
It’s called “Corporatism”, otherwise known as “Fascism” — where the dominant party colludes with big business. Money is “contributed” to the party in return for legislation that favors big business.
I’m not sure why the amount of money a candidate raises should even correlate to a win or loss? What has happened to principal, party philosophy, and just plain doing what’s right for the people. If a candidate can out raise an opponent buy huge margins, he/she has simply been bought. Since we are a government of the people, by the people and for the people, maybe corporations should be severely curtailed or even eliminated from the political process altogether? Just because a candidate has deep pockets only means he owes way too many favors. Corporations are the source of deep pockets, not the people. We truly need a secure and accurate voting system and probably one where Election Day is the same day for everyone. Why do we have election weeks? It’s one night out of the year.if you truly want to vote you will get your ass up and go vote.
jmho
Exactly!!
I am curious as to how many voters failed to go to the poles because they were convinced by the Red Wave hype that their vote was not really needed.
I would like to see this number also & include the people that did not vote because they think all elections are crooked & therefore why vote.
Mark kelly won in Arizona because of the sympathy vote. His wife was shot, he came back to Arizona to care for her. He’s not alone. Fetterman has a stroke…he wins. Again the sympathy vote. This is not the way to select folks for congress. Why don’t we do something simple like allowing 30 days to campaign. That way we are not overcome with ads and flyers. Tired of money spent to say nasty things about others.
There was one race where a dead guy won.
The difference between the Trump/Clinton election, regardless of money raised, was that was before the mail in ballot scam. We will never have “Free and Fair” elections until that Democrat Scam is outlawed and we go back to in person voting with a national voter ID.
Campaign money buys ad time. The solution to that would be to do like some other countries do and give equal air time to all the candidates, much like they do with PSA’a. Campaigns then would not have to spend money on airtime and could concentrate on meeting people on the ground, canvassing, etc. Of course this will never happen. But until the voting process is cleaned up I’m not sure how much good that would do anyway. Ronna McDaniel needs to be replaced, what company keeps a CEO who loses business year after year, or sports team keeps a coach who can’t bring home a winning season? Politics in America has become a circus paid for by big donors and full of liars and con artists who will say anything to get into office and then stay there until they die! Of course they almost never keep their campaign promises. I’ve tried to write my Senators about issues, but sadly we have 2 Democrats here, one is pretty well useless and never bothers to even respond, the other is a hardcore Marxist who only responds with form letters that say nothing. We had the chance to vote him out this year, but candidate quality matters and the GOP candidate was not quality. So now we are stuck with a Marxist and a clown who will just rubber stamp whatever this administration wants.
The problem is the republican party is internally divided..the Mcconnell faction vs maga faction. As a conservative, I hold my noise in checking the red box…dems are united in their marxism…
Not only are they divided, they tend to let their foot off the tigers throat way too soon. How many times during Trumps presidency did we hear “ the smoking gun”…”overwhelming evidence” and then crickets. Kinda have to hand it to the left. They followed through with the Jan 6th bullsh*t, of their own device, and are pressing on. Republicans have been castrated of late. They reach a point of “see what we got” but then walk away with their tails between their legs. America is so far left there is no coming back. The world hates us, we let our haters in graciously. Our constitution is for us, American Citizens not for the rest of the freeloading, tree hugging, Marxist world. We won’t fight back, we take the watch and see stance. We are doomed.
Could it be donors are tired of Republican mixed messages, non inspiring candidates and past donations resulting in no results at the voting booth?
The republican solution? Cheat, like the democrats do. Mark Kelly didn’t win Arizona. The democrats cheated there, again.
Republicans mantra that election was crooked if their candidate did not win is getting very old & is not helping GOP in any elections. Every election must have a winner & a loser.
To get to todays topics, in the next 12 hours congress will try to push through the obscene $1.7 trillion with a T spending bill. I have emailed my 2 Senators ( does it really make any difference ? I hope so). Have you ? I would like AMAC ( which I fully respect) become more nimble on the
immediate crises by recommending that we write our congressmen before its too late. I would rather discuss this now than complain for 3 days after the passage of this stupidity which takes the
new House republican congress out of the process.
I WHOLEHEARTEDLY AGREE !
Just keep pounding the walls. These far left night crawlers have to show themselves at every election. They have to eat just like the rest of us and sooner or later the won’t have the resources to throw money at a lost cause. They can’t keep up with the growing number of truth seekers that are going to keep them spending more and more and allowing them to take less and less. The truth will out and this time the swamp, will be drained!
You can point your fingers at whatever you like, until the voter fraud is stopped, the marxists will own this country. What has anyone done about it? Nothing. This tells me that the majority of republicans are as corrupt as the marxists.