In battle for Senate, pro-Dem group highlights big first-quarter fundraising haul

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The leading super PAC backing Democrats in this year’s Senate elections -- as the party tries to regain the majority in the chamber -- is touting its fundraising prowess over the past three months.

Senate Majority PAC on Tuesday announced that it hauled in $35.3 million in the first quarter of fundraising this year. The PAC – which is aligned with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer – spotlighted that its fundraising surpassed by nearly $9 million the amount raised the past three months by its GOP counterpart – the Senate Leadership Fund – which is aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

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And the group highlighted that they had $57 million cash on hand as of the beginning of April, which is double their money in the bank compared with two years ago at this point in the 2018 midterm election cycle.

“Momentum is on the side of Democrats as we continue to expand the map and put more seats in play heading into one of the most important elections of our lifetime,” Senate Majority PAC President J.B. Poersch said. “We have outpaced our Republican counterparts and have more cash on hand, as they are forced to spend everywhere to defend their weak incumbents, including Mitch McConnell.”

Republicans enjoy a 53-47 majority in the Senate. But the GOP is defending 23 seats of the 35 seats up for grabs this November. Roughly a half-dozen GOP seats are considered battlegrounds, while Democrats are defending just a handful of vulnerable incumbents. Democrats must net three seats to win back the majority in the chamber if they also capture the White House. If President Trump wins reelection, the Democrats will need to net four seats to capture the chamber.

While Republicans are still the odds-on favorites to keep their majority in November, after six years of GOP control of the Senate, Democrats see a potential path to win back control of the chamber.

Both the Senate Majority PAC and Senate Leadership Fund have already reserved well over $100 million in TV time to run ads in the key battleground contests during the autumn campaign.

The announcement from Senate Majority PAC comes as a bunch of Democratic challengers in key battleground states outraised the GOP incumbents in the first quarter.