2026-09-21T09:00:29.438Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
全美顶尖民主党人私下警告称，他们在11月中期选举中的资金不足以利用本党十余年来最佳的政治环境展开竞选，且面临着错失稳赢席位的严重风险。
据二十多名民主党消息人士透露，这些对话在最近几周变得愈发紧张。总统唐纳德·特朗普的竞选团队及其他共和党超级政治行动委员会（PAC）已向众议院和参议院的摇摆选区投入了铺天盖地的竞选资金，民主党无力与之抗衡。
民主党仍有信心拥有足够资金拿下众议院多数席位，并在参议院多数席位争夺中拥有现实机会。但党内围绕有限的资金池产生的紧张情绪正在升级，议员和助手们担心，最终可能仅获得微弱多数，几乎无法开展执政工作。
根据广告监测机构AdImpact的数据，在全国范围内的所有众议院和参议院竞选活动中，共和党将在中期选举最后几周的广告投放上大幅超过民主党。从本周一到选举日，共和党已预订了价值6.82亿美元的广告时段，而民主党为4.91亿美元。
“我们需要更多资金，”众议院民主党竞选委员会负责人朱莉·默茨在一份声明中告诉CNN，并补充称民主党需要争取“尽可能大的多数席位”。
民主党领导人，从国会议员到州长，纷纷前往纽约及其他捐赠者聚集地，为竞选资金做最后一搏，同时加大对顶级捐赠者的施压力度。
据两名知情人士透露，部分施压已初见成效：民主党人越来越相信亿万富翁迈克尔·布隆伯格将在竞选最后阶段代表本党投入巨资。
参议院民主党人认为，在今年秋季的所有竞争席位中，他们都将在资金投入上落后，担心共和党近期投入的资金可能让爱荷华州或阿拉斯加州的席位变得遥不可及，或是让共和党有真正机会拿下新罕布什尔州的席位。德克萨斯州参议院竞选的资金优势尤为明显，AdImpact的数据显示，截至选举日，共和党在该州的广告支出有望超过民主党8倍以上。
在众议院，少数党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯及其团队正极力敦促议员投入更多资金，甚至讨论是否将明年 coveted 委员会席位 withhold 给未缴款的议员，据多名参与讨论的人士透露。
这对杰弗里斯而言风险极高。众议院议长迈克·约翰逊目前执掌的多数席位创下历史纪录，这一数学现实让共和党每项重大优先议程都举步维艰。仅需少数议员就能有效阻挠众议院议事流程，打乱约翰逊的议程——这种情况已反复上演。
“除非有更多资源支持众议院民主党人，否则我们最终将错失席位，”众议院民主党最大超级政治行动委员会负责人迈克·史密斯告诉CNN。
多名消息人士透露，许多竞争激烈选区的民主党议员和候选人正恳求杰弗里斯和民主党领导人在最后几周加大投入。这包括一些现任众议院议员，他们眼看着共和党将资金投入到民主党原本能轻松拿下的选区，以及新罕布什尔州的克里斯·帕帕斯等顶级参议院候选人——他们突然陷入了资金不足的困境。
新罕布什尔州的共和党人已预订了从本周一到选举日价值2400万美元的广告时段，而民主党仅为1500万美元。
“在新罕布什尔这样的小州，这笔钱能发挥巨大作用，”帕帕斯的一名助手表示。帕帕斯的对手是前共和党参议员约翰·E·苏努努——该党最优秀的候选人之一。
就连前北卡罗来纳州州长罗伊·库珀——民主党本选举周期最优秀的筹款人和明星候选人之一——也警告称，民主党不能忽视他所在的竞选。
“有人问我最大的担忧是什么，我说人们对这场竞选掉以轻心，”库珀最近告诉CNN。“他们已经投入了近1亿美元与我们对抗。自7月以来，他们一直在用虚假负面广告攻击我们，正如我们预料的那样，竞选形势正在收紧。”
民主党内部目前正就如何以及在何处分配资金展开激烈辩论。
今年夏天的某个时候，众议院民主党人甚至考虑放弃佛罗里达州处境最艰难的现任议员，由于该州昂贵的媒体市场，这些议员的选区被共和党领导人重新划分。据两名消息人士透露，在内部民调结果远好于预期后，他们最终决定留在原地。
众议院民主党领导层与议员们私下争执，在最后阶段应将资金投向最能发挥作用的地方。
一些民主党人认为，他们应利用有利的政治环境，将竞选版图扩展到本党传统竞争选区之外——部分候选人和议员游说民主党在南德克萨斯、蒙大拿州西部和缅因州北部等成本较低的农村选区冒险。
纽约州北部一个深红选区的民主党人，即现任议员伊莉斯·斯特凡尼克所代表的席位，正呼吁民主党投入资金，该选区特朗普的得票率高出近20个百分点。 dairy farmer 布雷克·让德宾认为，民众对柴油价格和加拿大关税的日益不满让共和党在该选区不再稳操胜券。他告诉CNN，自己向选民传递的核心信息是：“生活成本太高了。”
劳工工会领袖、前空降森林消防员萨姆·福斯塔格及其盟友正极力推动民主党在另一个看似不可能的选区——蒙大拿州——投入资金。蒙大拿州民主党执行主任艾米丽·马伯格告诉CNN，她看到民众对关税、燃料成本和牛肉市场的不满日益加剧，让该选区的局势变得真正有竞争力。
她表示福斯塔格确实有获胜机会，但补充道：“我们需要来自这里的支持。”
但也有一些传统摇摆选区的民主党现任议员，如南德克萨斯州的维森特·冈萨雷斯和北卡罗来纳州的唐·戴维斯，他们认为在民主党考虑深入蒙大拿州或阿拉斯加州等地区之前，仍需要更多后备资金。
“我就像众议院中最具竞争力的席位。他们应该加倍支持我，”冈萨雷斯告诉CNN，并补充称自己正“非常节俭地”使用手头剩余的资金。
截至目前，冈萨雷斯表示自己在资金投入上基本与共和党对手持平，但他表示不会松懈：“我们的民调结果仍在误差范围内。”
党内一些人对资金差距并不那么担忧，他们指出鉴于特朗普的不受欢迎程度和民众对经济负担的普遍担忧，共和党处境艰难。他们表示，目前最大的问题是，共和党突然注入的资金能否巩固特朗普得票率超过10个百分点的红州席位，这将决定10月竞选战场的真实规模。
“我们将拥有必要的资金来捍卫所有摇摆选区的现任议员，同时确保我们拿下足够多的席位，夺回众议院多数席位乃至更多，”杰弗里斯上周告诉CNN。“共和党现在走投无路。他们除了向众议院、参议院和州长选举投入数千万美元之外，别无他法。”
民主党竞选工作人员也很快指出，共和党近期投放的广告资金效率并不高，因为临近选举日广告价格更高。此外，这笔资金来自超级政治行动委员会，它们需要支付比竞选团队更高的广告费率。
尽管如此，他们仍希望捐赠者关注此事。
“所有这些竞选都触手可及，我们必须认真对待这笔支出，”一名负责红领土建制众议院竞选的民主党工作人员表示。“我确实希望我们的捐赠者能看到这一点并挺身而出。”
但尽管党内许多人，如德克萨斯州参议院候选人詹姆斯·塔拉里科或爱荷华州州长候选人罗布·桑德，正独自筹集巨额资金，大多数民主党人都会欣然承认，他们正被超级政治行动委员会的资金“碾压”，用一名资深民主党助手的话来说。
“有些民主党人本可以拿下的席位最终会失手，因为没有足够的资金反驳共和党攻击并传递我们的信息，”中间派蓝狗行动组织的高级顾问菲尔·加德纳在采访中表示。
一名负责全州竞选的民主党工作人员补充道：“我仍然认为这将是我们的丰收之夜。但我想我们都会想，‘如果当时有更多资金会怎样？’”
“资金不足”与“完全被淹没”的区别
上周在一场众议院民主党政治战略会议上，党领导人一致敦促议员们向党的竞选机构承诺更多资金。据参会人士透露，杰弗里斯及其团队宣布将再投入200万美元。两名明年希望获得委员会主席职位的议员宣布了大额捐款——分别为17.5万美元和25万美元。其他参会者承诺捐款1万至5万美元，总计约300万美元。
就在几百英尺之外，副总统JD·万斯为众议院共和党人举行了一场集会——据一名了解筹款总额的人士透露，这场闭门会议最终筹集了约2000万美元。
来自内华达州的摇摆选区民主党议员苏西·李是推动党内设立实际缴费要求的议员之一，要求议员缴纳党费以资助竞选活动，否则将失去担任顶级委员会职务或竞选领导层的特权。
“如果你想手握议长槌，就应该付出一些代价，投入一些资金，帮助我们赢得多数席位，”李表示，并指出像她这样面临连任威胁的现任议员通常每季度能筹集100万美元或更多。
共和党在备受瞩目的众议院选举中的资金优势十分明显，例如纽约州北部众议员迈克·劳勒的席位——这是卡玛拉·哈里斯2024年在共和党掌控的少数几个席位之一。根据AdImpact的数据，从劳动节到选举日，共和党预订了1430万美元的广告时段，而民主党仅为170万美元。
众议院和参议院民主党人距离本选举周期中一些最艰难的决策仅两三周之遥。目前，参议院民主党人的主要超级政治行动委员会计划在俄亥俄州、阿拉斯加州、北卡罗来纳州和爱荷华州等主要目标席位投入大量资金，但不会投向德克萨斯州。助手们表示，这可能会改变，因为党领导人将在最后几周关注民调和共和党支出情况。
共和党在德克萨斯州的投入尤其加大。塔拉里科竞选团队的一名盟友表示，他们不认为这种差距是“五级警报”，并指出该竞选活动凭借更低的广告费率，能够在电视广告上保持竞争力。但该盟友表示，“需要更多资源来结束这场竞争”。
参议院多数党政治行动委员会——参议院竞选的顶级民主党超级政治行动委员会——发言人劳伦·弗伦奇在最近的一份声明中表示，该组织“正在密切关注德克萨斯州，并将继续这样做”。
“民主党不需要与共和党等额投入资金，但‘资金不足’和‘完全被淹没’之间存在巨大差异，”参与本次选举多场国会竞选的民主党工作人员利斯·史密斯补充道。
这包括爱荷华州开放的参议院席位，民主党候选人乔希·图雷克在选举日前的资金支出将落后1500万美元，像史密斯这样的工作人员尤其担心“让美国再次伟大”委员会的最后时刻资金投入。
“我们不能让共和党完全压制我们，”她说。“爱荷华州本周期对民主党人来说完全有机会获胜，这真的将取决于资金。”
与此同时，共和党人对期待已久的外部大额资金到来感到乐观。
“在你们所有人的帮助以及所有外部团体的帮助下——美国未来基金、特朗普总统的团队将提供帮助，还有各种其他团体——我相信我们将在2026年再次获胜，”代表宾夕法尼亚州利哈伊谷选区的众议员瑞安·麦肯齐在最近的一次筹款活动中表示，该选区是民主党最大的目标之一，据CNN获得的录音显示。
麦肯齐的发言人阿诺德·阿姆斯特朗在给CNN的一份声明中表示，这位国会议员有着“为利哈伊谷和波科诺山区交付成果的记录”，“全国各地有常识的美国人正团结起来支持众议员麦肯齐”。
‘We need more cash’: Democrats privately flashing alarms over GOP spending deluge in midterms
2026-09-21T09:00:29.438Z / CNN
Top Democrats across the country are privately warning that they do not have enough cash in the November midterms to capitalize on what could be their party’s best political environment in over a decade and are at serious risk of leaving winnable seats on the table.
These conversations, described by two dozen Democratic sources, have become increasingly fraught in recent weeks as President Donald Trump’s political operation and other GOP super PACs have unleashed a tidal wave of spending into House and Senate battlegrounds that Democrats have been unable to match.
Democrats still feel confident they have enough money to flip the House and have a real chance at the Senate majority. But tensions are rising inside the party about its more limited pot of funds, as members and aides fear they could end up with a narrow majority that makes governing all but impossible.
Across all House and Senate races nationwide, Republicans are set to significantly outspend Democrats overall on advertising over the closing weeks of the midterms, according to data from AdImpact. Republicans have $682 million worth of ads reserved from Monday through Election Day while Democrats have $491 million.
“We need more cash,” said Julie Merz, who runs the House Democrats’ campaign committee, told CNN in a statement, adding that Democrats need to fight for “the largest majority possible.”
Democratic leaders, from members of Congress to governors, have flocked to New York and other donor havens to make last-minute pitches for money, while ramping up pressure on their most valuable donors.
Some of that pressure may be working: Democrats increasingly believe that billionaire Michael Bloomberg will spend big on their behalf in the final weeks of the campaign, according to two people familiar with those discussions.
Senate Democrats believe they’ll be outspent in every one of the competitive races this fall, worried that the late influx of GOP spending could put seats like Iowa or Alaska just out of reach, or give the GOP a real chance at flipping New Hampshire. The Republican money advantage is particularly striking in the Texas Senate race, where the GOP is on track to outspend Democrats more than 8-to-1 through Election Day, according to AdImpact.
In the House, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his team are leaning hard on their members to invest more funds, even discussing whether to withhold coveted committee seats next year from lawmakers who do not pay up, according to multiple people involved in the discussions.
The stakes are high for Jeffries. House Speaker Mike Johnson currently oversees a historically narrow majority, a mathematical reality that has complicated every major GOP priority. It only takes a handful of members to effectively shut down the floor and derail Johnson’s agenda – which has happened over and over again.
“Unless more resources come in in support for House Democrats, we will ultimately leave seats on the table,” Mike Smith, who leads the House Democrats’ largest super PAC, told CNN.
Many Democratic lawmakers and candidates in the tightest races are pleading with Jeffries and party leaders to spend more in the final weeks. That includes some House incumbents who are watching Republicans dump money into races that Democrats believe they’d otherwise win easily, as well as top-tier Senate candidates, like Chris Pappas in New Hampshire, who’s suddenly being outspent, according to multiple sources.
Republicans in New Hampshire have booked $24 million in ad time from Monday through Election Day, compared with $15 million from Democrats.
That money “goes a really long way in a small state like New Hampshire,” an aide to Pappas said. Pappas faces former GOP Sen. John E. Sununu – perhaps their party’s top recruit.
Even former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper – one of Democrats’ best fundraisers and star recruits of the cycle – is warning that Democrats can’t afford to ignore his race.
“Someone asked me what my biggest concern was, and I said that people take this race for granted,” Cooper recently told CNN. “They already have allotted almost $100 million against us. They’ve been pounding us with false negative ads since July, and the race is tightening just as we knew it would.”
There is now fierce debate among Democrats about how – and where – to spend their cash.
At one point this summer, House Democrats even considered abandoning their toughest Florida incumbents, whose seats were redrawn by GOP leaders, given the state’s costly media markets. They later decided to stay put after internal polling came back far better than expected, according to two sources.
House party leaders and members have been privately squabbling about where money can go the furthest in the final stretch.
Some Democrats believe they should take advantage of a favorable political environment to expand the map beyond seats where the party traditionally competes – with some candidates and lawmakers lobbying the party to take gambles in cheaper, rural seats in south Texas, western Montana and northern Maine.
One Democrat in a ruby-red district in upstate New York, the seat now held Rep. Elise Stefanik, is making the case for party funds in a seat that Trump won by close to 20 points. Blake Gendebien, a dairy farmer, believes that rising concerns over diesel prices and Canada tariffs have made the seat unwinnable for Republicans. His biggest pitch to voters, he told CNN, is: “Life’s too expensive.”
Labor union leader and former smokejumper Sam Forstag and his allies are making a hard push for Democrats to spend in another unlikely place: Montana. Emily Marburger, the Montana Democratic Party executive director, told CNN that she is seeing growing anger over tariffs, fuel costs and the beef market that puts the seat firmly in play.
She said Forstag has a real chance but added: “We need support coming this way.”
But there are also Democratic incumbents in more traditional battleground seats, like Vicente Gonzalez in south Texas and Don Davis in North Carolina who are arguing they still need more back-up before Democrats can think about going deeper into places like Montana or Alaska.
“I’m like, the most competitive seat in the House. They should be like doubling down on me,” Gonzalez told CNN, who added he’s being “really thrifty” with the cash he does have left.
As of now, Gonzalez said he is largely matching the GOP dollars against him but he said he’s not easing up: “We’re still within the margin of error in our polling.”
Some in the party are less worried about the financial disparity, citing a nightmare environment for the GOP given Trump’s unpopularity and widespread concerns about affordability. The biggest question now, they say, is whether the sudden GOP cash infusion can stabilize red-tinted seats where Trump won by 10 or more points, which will determine the true size of the battlefield in October.
“We will have the money necessary to defend all of our battleground incumbents and at the same period of time, make sure we flip enough seats to take back the House of Representatives and more,” Jeffries told CNN last week. “Republicans are desperate right now. They have nothing left other than trying to unload tens of millions of dollars on the House, Senate and governor’s races.”
Democratic operatives are also quick to note that the recent influx of GOP ad dollars is not as efficient because advertising is more expensive closer to Election Day. Plus, the influx is coming from super PACs that already have to pay higher rates for advertising than campaigns do.
Still, they want donors to tune in.
“All of these races are within reach, and we have to take the spending seriously,” said a Democratic operative working on a set of House races in red-leaning territory. “I do hope our donors see this and step up.”
But while many in the party, like Texas Senate nominee James Talarico or Iowa gubernatorial nominee Rob Sand, are raising staggering amounts on their own, most Democrats will readily acknowledge they are “getting creamed” by super PAC money, in the words of one senior Democratic aide.
“There will be seats that Democrats could have won but they won’t because there was not enough money to rebut Republican attacks and get out a message,” Phil Gardner, a senior adviser to the centrist Blue Dog Action group, said in an interview.
One Democratic operative who works on statewide races added to CNN: “I still think it will be a great night for us. But I think we’ll all be thinking, ‘what if?’”
A difference between being ‘outspent’ and ‘completely drowned out’
Inside a House Democratic political strategy meeting last week, party leaders made a concerted push to members to pledge more money to the party campaign arm. Jeffries and his team announced they’d spend another $2 million, according to people in the room. Two members who are seeking gavels next year announced big checks – $175,000 and $250,000. Others in the room committed between $10,000 and $50,000, about $3 million in all.
Just a few hundred feet away, Vice President JD Vance rallied a group of House Republicans – a closed-door meeting that ultimately brought in roughly $20 million, according to a person briefed on the fundraising totals.
Rep. Susie Lee, a battleground Democrat from Nevada, is among a group of members pushing hard for the party to create an actual requirement to pay party dues to fund their campaign operation – or lose privileges like sitting on top committees or running for leadership.
“If you want to see a gavel in your hand, you should be feeling some pain and putting some money in and helping us get the majority,” Lee said, noting that endangered incumbents like her are often raising $1 million or more per quarter.
The GOP’s spending advantage is stark in high-profile House contests such as Rep. Mike Lawler’s upstate New York seat, one of the few GOP-held seats that Kamala Harris won in 2024. From Labor Day to Election Day, Republicans have reserved $14.3 million in ad buys compared to Democrats’ $1.7 million, according to AdImpact data.
Both House and Senate Democrats are just two or three weeks away from some of the toughest decisions in the cycle. Right now, Senate Democrats’ main super PAC is set to spend in big target seats like Ohio, Alaska, North Carolina and Iowa, but not Texas. That could change, though, aides said, as party leaders eye polling and GOP spending in the final weeks.
Republicans have especially ramped up in Texas. An ally of Talarico’s campaign said they did not see the disparity as “a five-alarm fire,” noting that the campaign, with its access to lower ad rates, has been able to hold its own on TV. But the ally said there “need to be more resources to close this thing out.”
Lauren French, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority PAC, the top Democratic super PAC in Senate races, said in a recent statement that the group is “watching Texas closely, and will continue to” do so.
“Democrats don’t need to match the spending dollar for dollar but there’s a big difference between being outspent and being completely drowned out,” added Lis Smith, a Democratic operative who’s involved in multiple congressional races this cycle.
That includes Iowa’s open Senate race, where Democrat Josh Turek is set to be outspent by $15 million through election day, and operatives like Smith are particularly worried about last-minute MAGA Inc money.
“We cannot let Republicans completely wipe us out,” she said. “Iowa is completely winnable for Democrats this cycle, it really will come down to the money.”
Republicans, meanwhile, are drawing optimism from the long-awaited arrival of major outside money.
“With all of your help and the help of all the outside groups — AFP, President Trump’s groups are going to be in helping, all kinds of other groups — I am confident that we’re going to win again in 2026,” Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, who represents a Pennsylvania seat in the Lehigh Valley that’s one of Democrats’ biggest target, said at a recent fundraiser, according to audio obtained by CNN.
In a statement to CNN, Arnaud Armstrong, a spokesman for Mackenzie, said the congressman has a “track record of delivering results for the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos” and “commonsense Americans throughout the country are rallying to support Congressman Mackenzie.”