House Republicans Blunt ‘Blue Wave’ Hopes As Democrats Falter In Fundraising
With the midterm elections nearly a year away, House Republicans are touting a notable fundraising advantage that could help the party maintain control of the House in 2026.
For the first time since 2015, the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans, outperformed its Democratic counterpart in the first three quarters of an election cycle. Although midterm elections tend to go poorly for the party in power, poor fundraising for Democrats and relatively poor results in the generic vote show the party in a weaker position than in previous election cycles. (RELATED: CNN’s Harry Enten Says GOP’s Chances of Keeping House Control Are ‘Like a Rocket’)
The NRCC has brought in about $720,000 more in fundraising since the beginning of the year than the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).
In contrast, the DCCC held a nearly $9 million advantage after the first three fundraising quarters of 2017. Democrats would win 41 seats in the 2018 midterms and regain control of the House.
Through the first three fundraising quarters of 2025, NRCC reported a $20 million increase in contributions compared to the same period in 2017. The House Republican campaign arm also has $7.5 million more in the bank at the end of September 2025 than it did at September 2017.
“The numbers don’t lie: House Republicans have the momentum, the message and the money while the Democrats are broke, divided and out of gas,” NRC spokesman Mike Marinella said in a statement.
Although the DCCC reported slightly more revenue in the third quarter than the NRCC’s $24 million, the campaign arm of House Democrats reported less year-to-date fundraising in 2025 compared to the last cycle in 2023. The DCCC had a $23 million advantage over the NRCC at the end of September of that year.
Republican Rep. TH Young Kim (CA-40) speaks on stage during the 2023 Concordia Annual Summit at the Sheraton New York on September 18, 2023 in New York. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images for Concordia Summit)
Republicans also maintained a financial advantage among their most vulnerable incumbents compared to their Democratic counterparts.
House Republicans on NRC’s Patriot list — the party’s most endangered incumbents — raised an average of $763,000 during the third fundraising quarter, which runs from July to September.
Three NRC Patriots, Reps. Young Kim of California, Mike Lawler of New York and Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, reported raising more than $1 million in the third quarter.
Vulnerable Republican incumbents also maintained a significant cash flow advantage over their Democratic counterparts through the end of September.
DCCC Frontliners — considered the most vulnerable Democrats running for re-election — reported an average fundraising of $664,000 during the third fundraising quarter of the year, according to the NRC analysis. Four Democrats, including Maine Rep. Jared Golden, reported more than $1 million in revenue during the third quarter.
Democrats were also unable to maintain their results on the generic ballot compared to 2017.
As of Friday, Democrats held a lead of just 2.6 points in the RealClearPolitics polling average. On October 24, 2017, Democrats led Republicans by 10.3 percentage points in the generic vote.
The Democrats’ weaker performance in the generic vote comes as the party’s approval rating has fallen to an all-time low. A Wall Street Journal poll from July found a -30 net favorability rating for Democrats — the worst reading for the party since the pollster began asking the question in 1990.
Matt Bennett, co-founder of the liberal think tank Third Way, argued Thursday that the Democratic Party’s low approval ratings indicate the party could remain in dire shape through the midterms.
“We’re in terrible shape. We just have to be very honest with ourselves: The Democratic Party is in really, really bad shape,” Bennett told Halperin.
“We haven’t started to solve these problems,” Bennett continued. “I think we won’t be able to fully resolve them until we have a leader, and it won’t be about three years, when we nominate someone for president.”
The Republican National Committee (RNC) also continues to beat its Democratic rival in fundraising and cash flow. The RNC has $86 million in the bank, compared to the DNC’s $12 million at the end of September, a deficit of $74 million.
The DNC notably distributed $1.6 million in September alone – and paid out more than $20 million in total – to cover former Vice President Kamala Harris’ remaining campaign debts following her failed presidential campaign.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent, nonpartisan news service, is available free to any legitimate news publisher capable of delivering a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and DCNF affiliation. For questions about our guidelines or our partnership, please contact licenses@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
