With less than 100 days to go, July FEC reports show House Republicans entering the homestretch at a serious cash disadvantage. At the beginning of 2019, the NRCC unveiled an ambitious list of 55 offensive targets. But the pandemic's onset halted recruiting and has made fundraising more difficult, and the House battlefield has shifted dramatically in Democrats' direction.
The good news for Republicans is that they've since picked up two of those seats: Rep. Jeff Van Drew (NJ-02) switched parties and the GOP picked up California's 25th CD in a May special election after Rep. Katie Hill resigned.
The bad news is that today, the median Democrat in the other 53 seats has $2.6 million in cash on hand to just $414,000 for the median Republican challenger — a six to one edge. By contrast, the median Republican in the DCCC's 44 targeted "Offensive Battlefield" seats finished June with $991,000 to $513,000 for the median Democratic challenger, a much more competitive picture.
The bigger problem for Republicans remains the larger political environment. Pollsters of both parties are hard-pressed to
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