1 hour ago
2
WASHINGTON — The Democratic Party’s principal fundraising committee saw donations slump in the second-to-last month of the year, recording just a $12 million campaign war chest and almost $16 million still in debt due to a loan taken out the previous month, Federal Election Commission filings show.
The fundraising doldrums come amid party infighting over whether to release a 2024 autopsy report on the failed Biden-Harris campaign and pressure ahead of the critical 2026 midterms, where Democrats want to retake Congress.
The Democratic National Committee listed a little more than $12.6 million cash on hand, $10.7 million raised and $15.9 million in debts in its FEC filing for November, with national Republicans accusing their opponents of “drowning” in their obligations to pay off bills.
That puts the DNC only a few hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead of the Republican National Committee (RNC) for that month’s fundraising — but far behind the GOP’s $89.9 million cash on hand and lack of outstanding debts as both parties look ahead to the 2026 midterms.
From Nov. 1 to 30, the DNC actually lost roughly $6 million from its campaign war chest with spending having outpaced its donations. The month before, it had also raised $23 million — more than double its November haul.
The Democrats’ loan was taken out before their party secured key victories in New Jersey, Virginia and New York City’s mayoral races.
The RNC dipped a little less than $1.5 million in its cash on hand during those same months.
The DNC chose last week not to release a 2024 post-mortem on Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to President Trump, with the party’s chairman Ken Martin suggesting the report’s findings would only be “a distraction from its core mission.”
A DNC official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said their party failed on outreach — especially with voters between the ages of 18 and 30 years old, who swung to Trump by 11 percentage points.
Democrats also didn’t allay voters’ concerns about crime and illegal immigration — and lacked credibility when talking about the economy, the official noted.
Chief Deputy Whip Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said of the decision: “I believe the DNC should release the report because 1) that’s what they said they were going to do 2) this is going to be a thing 3) if there’s good analysis we should see it.”
Their party still holds a nearly four-percentage-point advantage over Republicans for the midterm elections on the generic ballot, according to the RealClearPolitics polling aggregator.
Harris has indicated she may seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028 after having ascended to the top of the party’s ticket — without a primary contest — when President Joe Biden suspended his campaign just 107 days before the 2024 election.
The DNC’s withheld report does not apparently address Biden’s decision to run for re-election as the oldest-president ever, The New York Times reported, and some Biden or Harris consultants pressured party bosses to keep their names out of it, according to The Bulwark.
In the first seven months of 2025, the DNC also had to pay back more than $18 million in expenses associated with Harris’ campaign, FEC filings show.
The fundraising figures also come as Hunter Biden recently ripped his father’s presidency during a five-hour podcast appearance for a far too permissive immigration stance and “obvious f—ing failure” of a withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
“We don’t want immigrants that are coming here illegally, draining us of resources, and being prioritized above people that are actual, literal heroes, that are still recovering from 21, 20 years of endless war — or anybody else in our society,” the 55-year-old said on an episode of “The Shawn Ryan Show.”
Around 2.4 million immigrants came into the US every year from 2021 to 2024, per the Congressional Budget Office. A Goldman Sachs analysis found at least 60% crossed the border illegally.
In one early survey of the 2028 general election, Vice President JD Vance — the RNC’s finance chair and likely future presidential nominee — was shown trailing behind Harris by a single percentage point.
Other polling showed Vance defeating Dem challengers like California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“Ken Martin has turned the DNC into a money-losing operation that reflects the failures of the broader Democratic Party,” said RNC spokeswoman Kiersten Pels.
“The DNC is drowning in debt, still paying Kamala Harris’s campaign bills, and watching donors flee as leadership bankrolls radical candidates voters don’t want,” Pels added. “Ken Martin has run the party into the ground, and Republicans sincerely hope he keeps it up.”
Reps for the DNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
English (US)