Record 'Dark Money' Donations Help GOP Retake House Seats

I hope we equalize the supreme court and once and for all rid our country of cancer known as Citizens United and that would only be a start.


A Republican-linked nonprofit was a top donor to House Republicans’ super PAC, which spent big in a number of swing races that saw the GOP retake seats lost to Democrats in 2018.

BY DAVID MOORE NOVEMBER 6, 2020

House Democrats will start the next Congress with their number diminished, losing at least eight and perhaps 10 seats in the 2020 election. A net loss of eight seats would represent over 3% of current Democratic House members, far from Democrats’ hopes of expanding their headcount by around 12-15 seats.

As of Wednesday afternoon, House Democrats had claimed none of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) 38 “red-to-blue” district targets to flip from Republicans—for example, striking out on all of the seven pickup targets in Texas, two of which were thought to be leaning Democratic by The Cook Political Report. While Democrats will keep control of the U.S. House and gained two seats in North Carolina through favorable redistricting, it looks like 2020’s losses will reduce their share of the lower chamber to about 51.5% of the total 435 representatives.

Of this cycle’s 42 “frontline” House districts held by vulnerable incumbents according to the DCCC, six losses so far came in districts picked up by Democrats in the 2018 midterms: Reps. Xochitl Torres Small (N.M.), Kendra Horn (Okla.), Joe Cunningham (S.C.), Abby Finkenauer (Iowa), Max Rose (N.Y.), and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (Fla.). Freshman Democratic Rep. TJ Cox of California narrowly trails David Valadao, who is running to take back his former seat, as votes continue to be counted. In Iowa’s Second Congressional District, composed of the area around Davenport and Iowa City, the race to succeed retiring seven-term Rep. Dave Loebsack, a Democrat, is neck-and-neck.

excerpt: Outspent by McCarthy’s Super PAC
The defeated House Democrats didn’t lack for campaign money, largely bringing in millions of dollars for their reelections and outraising their opponents. Rep. Torres Small raised over $7.5 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, compared to $2.5 million raised by her successful Republican challenger Yvette Herrell, and spent nearly 2.7 times as much on the race.

But a super PAC aligned with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and the House GOP, the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), announced its largest-ever fundraising quarter shortly before the election, bringing in $77.4 million, double its 2018 haul. CLF’s historic third quarter went towards its over $106.7 million in total spending this cycle, as tracked by the Center for Responsive Politics as of Nov. 4.

https://prospect.org/power/record-dark-money-donations-help-gop-retake-house-seats/