Republicans are entering the final month of the midterm campaign with a $1 billion war chest—but many still fear it won’t be enough to stop a blue wave on Nov. 3.
The billion-dollar war chest gives the GOP a substantial financial advantage, compared to the $579 million held by major Democratic groups.
The party’s financial advantage is being driven largely by Donald Trump’s Super PAC MAGA Inc., which had nearly $416 million in cash at the end of August and is finally spending big.
The group has spent millions defending GOP candidates ahead of the midterms, even in historically safe seats.
For example, MAGA Inc. has spent more than $22 million in Texas in the past month. That includes at least $15 million for state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s campaign for Senate.
Texas PAC, aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, has spent another $83 million to protect the seat, despite Texas being a Republican stronghold that has not elected a Democratic senator since 1988.
Altogether, Republican-aligned spending in Texas is projected to top $300 million.
“We’ve never seen anything like it,” a Democratic operative working for Paxton’s opponent, James Talarico, told CNN.
The big spending comes as Republicans are trailing Democrats in the polls ahead of the midterms.
Pollster Angus Reid has Democrats up 16 points on the generic congressional ballot—their biggest lead yet.
That is just one of many polls that have Democrats clearly ahead of the GOP, raising the possibility that Republicans could lose not just the House but the Senate too.
Meanwhile, New York Times/Siena polling shows Democrats leading or within striking distance in four GOP-held governors’ races: Iowa, Ohio, Texas, and Alaska, while Democrats are mounting serious Senate challenges in traditional red states including Ohio, Maine, Iowa, and Michigan.
As a result, Republicans are increasingly worried that even their massive war chest may not be enough to save them on Nov. 3, with advertising rates rising sharply as Election Day approaches.
Veteran Republican pollster Neil Newhouse said the party’s late spending could prove far less effective.
“After the votes are counted, I think we’re going to find the most effective advertising ... happened well before Labor Day, not after it,” he told The Associated Press. “A million dollars of advertising in October is a drop in the bucket.”
Republicans are facing difficulty at the polls as Trump faces some of his lowest approval ratings yet, reaching the low 30s.
The tide has been turning against Trump and his party ever since he launched his deeply unpopular war on Iran in February.
The war has caused energy prices to spike. AAA figures show the average price of fuel at $4.37 a gallon, while diesel stands at $6.32.
Food prices have also risen, with ground beef up 7.2 percent over the past 12 months, while seafood, sugar, and coffee are all up around 6 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And Americans—including Trump voters—are not happy about it.
An Iowa Trump voter last week told MS NOW she was “p---ed off about gas and food prices” and regretted her vote. “He tells you one thing and does just the opposite,” she said. Asked if America was “Great Again,” she replied: “No it’s not. They’ve run it to the ground.”
She is not alone in her frustrations. One lifelong Republican told SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Wrap-Up Show last month that she is so frustrated with her party that she is considering voting Democrat in the midterms.
“I’m so p---ed at the Republicans that I just might go and vote straight-ticket Democrat just because, just because. Why should I be loyal to them? We’re just so screwed,” she said.
Still, Trump is urging his supporters to treat the midterms as a referendum on his presidency in the apparent belief that will help his party keep control of Congress. At a rally in Nebraska on Monday, he told supporters to act as though he were on the ballot.
“In a true way, I am running,” Trump said. “We have to keep it going.”
Democrats are benefiting from candidates who are broadly popular and, in many cases, viewed as more moderate than their Republican opponents. But even as Republicans panic, top Democrats warn that the GOP’s spending advantage could stil prove decisive.
“We’re never going to have as much money as them,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in an AP interview. “I sum up the election in this sentence: Can a massive Republican advantage in money beat a massive Democratic advantage in better candidates and political climate? I bet it can.”
