House Republicans had a paper-thin majority going into the election. Democratic lawmakers and candidates outraised and outspent their GOP counterparts. The entity that, in many ways, kept House Republicans afloat was the Congressional Leadership Fund, run by longtime president Dan Conston.
We got our hands on a post-election donor memo from the Congressional Leadership Fund that broke down how they did it. The memo is worth a read.
Here are some stats that jumped out to us:
— Per Conston, “the average Democrat incumbent raised $6 million versus $2.4 million for the average Republican challenger – $3.6 million less.” Despite this, Republicans are on track to flip five Democratic seats.
— For GOP incumbents, the picture was rosier. Conston wrote that Republican incumbents in key races raised an average of $5.7 million and Democratic challengers raised $5.9 million.
— Conston is also touting that in the top 20 high-spending House races, CLF “provided on average over 50% of the GOP’s broadcast TV presence” in the races. In Rep.-elect Ryan Mackenzie’s (R-Pa.) win over Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.), CLF says its ads “represented 72% of the GOP’s share of voice.”
— In the memo, Conston said that Democrats invested $26.5 million in a group of nine Republican-held seats that President-elect Donald Trump won by 1% or more in 2020. Republicans won all nine of these seats and only spent $15.8 million in doing so.
— CLF also “significantly increased our streaming budget to $37 million,” Conston wrote, reflecting a wider shift in advertising away from traditional linear broadcast spots.
