{"id":19922,"date":"2026-04-10T12:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/19922\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T12:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:32:08","slug":"democrats-tackle-outside-groups-flooding-their-primaries-with-campaign-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/19922\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats tackle outside groups flooding their primaries with campaign cash"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2013 Democrats are struggling to come up for air after outside groups flooded their first round of midterm primaries with campaign cash. <\/p>\n

As the Democratic Party fights to regain control of Congress, organizations affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee<\/a>, cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence have dominated the airwaves<\/a>, sometimes leaving candidates on the sidelines of their own campaigns. <\/p>\n

Democratic pollster Zac McCrary said the primaries have \u201cbecome proxy wars, and the candidates are almost afterthoughts in larger skirmishes.”<\/p>\n

Now the Democratic National Committee is advancing a resolution at its New Orleans spring meeting to condemn the surge of spending that has scrambled its primaries and exacerbated tensions within the party. A final vote is expected on Friday.<\/p>\n

Candidates who lost have pointed their fingers at special interests, blaming them for derailing their campaigns. Others who are still in the running are courting voters by denouncing deep-pocketed outside groups. Even those who have benefited from the spending have expressed concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a brave new world,\u201d McCrary said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not talking about doubling of campaign expenditures,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about 10 times or 20 times more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan Sena, a former executive director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said party organizations are no longer the ones with the clout to push favored candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll that\u2019s been completely smashed now,\u201d Sena said. Even if Democrats regain control of the U.S. House, he warned that outside spending could damage the party in the long run. <\/p>\n

Referring to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, he said, \u201cYou\u2019re going to hand Jeffries a caucus that is divided.\u201d <\/p>\n

Democrats bear the brunt of big spending<\/p>\n

So far this cycle, outside money in U.S. House races has largely targeted districts particularly friendly to Democrats, meaning the primaries will likely determine who will win the general election in November. After a record number of House members retired this year, many of those seats opened up for the first time in years, drawing dozens of Democratic hopefuls.<\/p>\n

In Illinois, for example, there was more than $125 million in outside spending<\/a> across five open Democratic primaries. In all but one of those congressional races, the outside spending exceeded candidate spending. <\/p>\n

While it’s still early in the calendar, there are indicators that many more races could see big spending. Almost 40 seats have already seen more than $1 million in outside spending, according to Federal Election Commission filings.<\/p>\n

In Illinois, the top three spenders in U.S. House races were groups affiliated with AIPAC, according to AdImpact, which tracks ad buys in political races, followed by the cryptocurrency-affiliated Fairshake. <\/p>\n

AIPAC was founded to support strong ties between the U.S. and Israel, a particularly controversial issue<\/a> as Democratic hostility toward Israel rises over the war in Gaza. Some DNC members wanted to call out AIPAC’s role in primaries, but the final resolution did not. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had various resolutions that focused on different industries and groups, and instead of going one-by-one, we passed a blanket repudiation,\u201d DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Campaign spending has divided Democrats<\/p>\n

The latest DNC meeting marks another chapter in longstanding disputes between progressives and the party establishment.<\/p>\n

Progressives want the party to adopt official language that all Democratic presidential contenders oppose money from dark-money groups, or super PACs that aren’t required to disclose their donors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s necessary that we actually have the party do something on this issue, not just say something,\u201d said Larry Cohen, co-chair of Our Revolution, a progressive group founded by independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who caucuses with Democrats.<\/p>\n

The resolution being advanced at the DNC meeting in New Orleans is viewed by progressives as a step toward that goal. However, some Democrats warn against weakening their candidates when facing a Republican Party that’s flush with cash. <\/p>\n

\u201cProvided that we don\u2019t handcuff ourselves in the general elections \u2014 because if the Republicans are going to use dark money in general elections, we should be using our money in general elections, too \u2014 if you provide an even playing field, I think then that\u2019s fine,\u201d said Sen. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat. \u201cBut we just can\u2019t be handcuffing ourselves in the general to lose races.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any DNC resolutions would not stop outside groups from surging funds into primary contests or general elections. But some Democrats believe the issue is core to the party’s values. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe should eliminate any super PAC in a Democratic primary. And I think every presidential candidate in 2028 should pledge that they will not have any super PAC spending in a Democratic primary,\u201d said Rep. Ro Khanna, a progressive and possible Democratic presidential contender who co-chaired Sanders\u2019 2020 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat should be a litmus test,\u201d Khanna argued. \u201cIf you\u2019re not willing to take that pledge, then you\u2019re part of the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Brown reported from New York. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2013 Democrats are struggling to come up for air after outside groups flooded their first round of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[144],"tags":[4704,14712,1065,485,14713,14711,10196,6827,1194,14710],"class_list":["post-19922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hakeem-jeffries","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-dan-sena","tag-elections","tag-hakeem-jeffries","tag-ken-martin","tag-larry-cohen","tag-ro-khanna","tag-ruben-gallego","tag-washington-news","tag-zac-mccrary"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116380430653982588","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}