To retake the House, Dems focus on New York
New York almost single-handedly cost Democrats their House majority in last fall's midterm elections. Now a leading Democratic group is preparing to pour record sums into the state, in hopes it can deliver the party back to power next year.
House Majority PAC, the main super political action committee aligned with congressional Democrats, will unveil a first-of-itskind, $45 million fund this week dedicated to winning back four seats Republicans flipped in New York and targeting two other competitive districts. Republicans currently control the chamber by only a five-seat margin.
The planned Democratic infusion would dwarf outside spending in the state in recent election cycles and reflects just how central traditionally blue New York has become to the national House battlefield for both parties. Of the 18 districts nationwide that President Joe Biden won in 2020 that are now represented by Republicans, New York is home to six.
“The path to the majority runs through New York,” Mike Smith, the group's president, said in an interview outlining its plans. “It's not just us seeing it. It is the Republican Party seeing it. It's every donor around the country seeing it.”
The announcement comes amid bitter Democratic infighting over how to regroup from last year's whiplash elections. While the party outperformed expectations nationally, New York was a glaring outlier. On Election Day, Republicans here harnessed fears about rising crime and one-party Democratic rule to run a nearly clean sweep through competitive districts and secure their majority.
Smith said his group was still raising the funds but planned to move unusually early in the election cycle to try to reshape how voters view those six newly elected Republicans, who represent districts in Long Island, the Hudson Valley and Syracuse.
Many of them succeeded in portraying themselves as common sense moderates in suburban territory, but they will enter a presidential election year, when Democrats historically turn out in higher numbers, as among the most endangered Republicans in the country.
Among Democrats' best cudgels may be one of those freshmen, Rep. George Santos, the Republican who flipped a suburban Long Island seat only to watch his resume unravel into a series of elaborate lies and potential frauds.
“These freshman Republicans have no real track record to run on, other than what's happening in the national space,” Smith said. “And that's George Santos, Kevin McCarthy, Marjorie Taylor Greene and the most extreme elements.”
That effort is almost certain to set off a major spending war with Republicans.