There’s more than a year to go before the 2022 midterm elections, but Republicans have wasted no time racking up donations, bringing in a record amount during the first six months of 2021.
According to Axios, the National Republican Congressional Committee has already raised nearly $80 million this year, its best-ever first-half collection during an election off-year. In June alone, the committee raised more than $20 million and in the second quarter it raised $45 million overall, another record-breaking amount for the group, which is “devoted to increasing the number of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives.”
The committee for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California contributed $12.76 million this year and the committee for House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, a Republican representing Louisiana, contributed $8.39 million.
Although the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also reported a record haul for the second quarter of 2021, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, it lagged behind the Republicans at $36 million.
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During the 2020 election, Democrat President Joe Biden defeated incumbent former President Donald Trump, a Republican, who was serving his first term. Democrats were also able to maintain a majority in the House of Representatives (though Republicans managed to flip 15 seats) and Democrats reduced a Republican lead in the Senate down to a 50/50 split.
Axios explained that the president’s party traditionally loses seats in the House in the first midterm elections following a presidential election. However, Slate noted that this trend did not hold in 1998, when then-President Bill Clinton was being impeached, and in 2001, shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
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While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic could break the trend of losing House seats in 2022 for Democrats, the Republican campaign funding push could impact the elections as well. According to a Harvard Political Review study published in May, 25 out of 35 Senate races in the 2020 election cycle were won by candidates who raised and spent more than their opponents.
Going into end of this year, the National Republican Committee will have $55 million in the bank, said Axios.
When the 2022 elections do come around next November, 14 Senate seats held by Democrats and 20 held by Republicans will be up for election as well as all 435 seats in the House.
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