While the summer bump Democrats experienced may have waned slightly post-Labor Day, they are still in an unexpectedly strong position to hold the Senate. The environment is a boost for now, but incumbents also continue to perform well while many Republican challengers, beset by problems and anemic fundraising, are lagging behind.
There may be no better evidence of this than in Arizona. Sen. Mark Kelly, fresh off winning a special election in 2020, really never stopped running – or, crucially, fundraising. He has raised more than $54 million in total for his campaign, and ended mid-July with nearly $25 million still in the bank. Meanwhile, the newly-minted GOP nominee had only raised just under $5 million for the whole cycle. Republicans say Masters has picked up fundraising after he emerged from the August primary, but it is all but impossible for him to catch up to Kelly in the cash dash.
And if we use the old adage “follow the money,” it is clear that major outside groups are focusing their manpower elsewhere. This week, Josh Kraushaar at
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