In an attempt to rejuvenate the beleaguered Democratic party, DNC national chairman Tom Perez announced $10 million for state parties in hopes that the surge of cash would help rebuild the party after embarrassing 2016 losses across the board against the GOP. Yet, many state leaders are now worried that that money is never going to actually come, reports Vice News.
“What our fear is, is that no matter how high this wave is in 2018, that we won’t have the ability to take advantage of that and win governors races, congressional races, and state legislative races that would normally be out of reach but could be competitive,” Ray Buckley, New Hampshire Democratic Party chairman, told VICE News.
Democrats, who are hoping for a blue wave in response to Anti-Trump sentiment across the country, have struggled continuously with fundraising efforts since he end of 2016. As noted by Vice, the Democrat party did not even have $10 million on hand last November 30th. They had a measly $6.4 million compared to the GOP’s $39.8 million cash.
To make matters worse, according to Vice’s sources, DNC Chairman Perez hates his role. “Tom is just really miserable in the job, which is part of why it’s not going well,” said one Democratic official who has worked with Perez. “He hates the fundraising and says no to so much of the fundraising even though they are obviously not in good shape financially.”
“Clearly Tom inherited a shithole, not just in fundraising but in terms of morale as well,” Ken Martin, head of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and of the Association of State Democratic Chairs, told Vice.
Vice News points out that "there has also been minimal help from Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or Bernie Sanders—the biggest stars of the party—to fundraise, and a lot of money being raised on the Left is going to a host of shiny new “resistance” organizations or candidates rather than the Democratic Party itself."
As noted by this reporter, the GOP dominated throughout 2017 in terms of small dollar donations. "In 2017, more than $40 million worth of donations to the RNC have come from low-dollar donations. That’s 60% of the total $68 million raised by the RNC this year. This trend for Donald Trump is nothing new. An often unreported fact of the 2016 election is that Trump managed to raise $239 million off donations of $200 or less.
That means President Trump received more low-dollar donations than Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders- combined.
Trump’s 2016 low-dollar fundraising efforts outpaced even Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election efforts of $219 million, according to the the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute, which compiled the data."
As the GOP reaps the benefits in the polls of recent tax cuts, the Democrat party struggles to form a coherent message. Even if votes blame the Republicans for the current government shutdown, history indicates that government shutdowns largely do not sway voters opinions one way or the other.