Democratic House challengers raking in funding

Yet, party faces downsides going into 2018 midterms

Democratic congressional challengers posted impressive fundraising tallies so far this year. In the last quarter, nearly three dozen Republican incumbents were outraised by at least one Democratic challenger — an astonishing number against sitting members of Congress. The breadth of Democratic fundraising is also strong.

But there’s an important pattern under the big numbers that will shape the battleground in the 2018 midterm elections. So far, nearly all of the biggest Democratic recruiting struggles have been in working-class areas. And Democrats might have too many challengers successfully fundraising in the most affluent districts.

Democrats have debated extensively about whether they ought to focus on winning back working-class Trump voters or on expanding their gains in diverse, well-educated Sun Belt suburbs. This can be a false choice: They can do both to some extent, especially in congressional elections where individual candidates can run campaigns well-suited to their districts. But Democrats, who need a net gain of 24 seats to retake the House, won’t have the option to target districts they held as recently as a decade ago if they can’t find viable challengers.

There is not yet a strong Democratic challenger in David Valadao’s district (the 21st) in California’s Central Valley, the nation’s least-educated Republican-held