The Republican Party has done a dismal job in the year’s third quarter fundraising. As such, Democrat candidates who did not have a chance are now competitive and some Democrats who may have lost are now holding on. The president, far outspent in 2016 but who still won, is not hurt too badly by this. But down ticket state, House, and Senate candidates are damaged. The party is to blame.

Democrats are walloping Republicans when it comes to fundraising in most of the competitive 2020 House races.https://t.co/nfKqXH71z5

— OpenSecrets.org (@OpenSecretsDC) October 25, 2020

Republican fundraising recently has come off as hucksterish. Small party donors, activists, and many others are inundated with texts featuring hackneyed pitches, used car salesmen copy, and outright lies. The texts that purport to be directly from candidates are overwrought and barely credible.

The texts can come at the rate of a dozen a day. Many GOP small donors became annoyed and asked the senders to desist. But the texts kept coming. Thus, those donors tuned out. The GOP apparatchik who came up with this strategy should be taken out to the office parking lot and maimed.

The Hill further reports, “Republicans are facing a post-election reckoning about how they cultivate small-dollar donors. Regardless of who wins on Nov. 3, GOP lawmakers and officials say there needs to be a party-wide discussion about how to better fundraise as the coronavirus pandemic magnifies the importance of digital efforts at a time when in-person events are dramatically scaled back. Republicans, playing defense as they try to hold on to the Senate majority and the White House, have watched Democrats rake in a mountain of cash that has helped move deep-red states into toss-up territory and set off alarms throughout the GOP.”

“I’m sure we’ll be going to school on how the Democrats are so successful, because we just can’t afford to be outspent by these huge margins and expect to be successful,” said Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), who is up for reelection this year. Senator Thune (R-S.D.), the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, replied: “Oh my gosh, yes, absolutely, yeah.”

“They’ve created a mechanism that’s very effective, and we’re trying to catch up,” Thune said. He said Republicans “were just getting crushed. Yup, the Democrats hired pros. The Republicans hired their squash partners. Always the bloody story.

Senator Ron Johnson, (R-WI), said, “I think Democrats with ActBlue are way ahead. … Hats off to them, they did a really good job. We’re just behind.”

“I think that you will absolutely see people raising the spending disparities as something that affected the outcome in certain races and highlighting it as something that needs to improve on our side for the next cycle,” said one anonymous GOP official.

Senator Lindsey Graham, (R-SC) said, “Traditional fundraising is still there, but the social media … my opponent, to his credit, it’s just been incredible what ActBlue has been able to do. If you don’t have a social media fundraising strategy, you’re in trouble.” It helps if the strategy is competent, Lindsey.

“Democratic Senate campaigns made strategic early investments in digital infrastructure from the day they launched, and those smart decisions have paid off and helped expand the map. But the problem for Republican incumbents isn’t just that they’re behind on the tools to use, they’re also facing a massive grass-roots enthusiasm gap this cycle,” said Stewart Boss, a spox for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Wrong about the enthusiasm. Right about the smart decisions.

This piece was written by David Kamioner on November 2, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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