Democratic House campaign arm raises $36.5M in second quarter

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) raised nearly $36.5 million over the past three months, besting its total from the first quarter of the year, according to numbers shared with The Hill on Friday.

The group capped off its second-quarter fundraising with a nearly $14.4 million haul in June alone, it’s second best month of the year to date after March, when it reported raising $15.6 million. The DCCC is now entering the second half of 2021 with more than $44 million in the bank.

“Our strong fundraising success shows American voters are rejecting Republican extremism and know just how critical a Democratic House Majority is to protecting our democracy and delivering for American families,” Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chair of the DCCC, said in a statement. 

The DCCC and its GOP counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), have been locked in a back-and-forth battle for fundraising supremacy over the past six months, outpacing one another at various points in the year.

The NRCC beat out the DCCC’s fundraising totals in January, March and May, while the DCCC raked in larger sums in February and April.

The groups’ most recent fundraising reports aren’t due to be filed with the Federal Election Commission until July 20, and the NRCC hasn’t yet disclosed how much it raised in June, though its latest available filing shows it with nearly $42.2 million in cash on hand. 

For both the DCCC and the NRCC, 2021 fundraising is likely to prove crucial, giving them a chance to build up their war chests ahead of a high-stakes midterm election cycle in 2022. 

Democrats currently hold one of the narrowest House majorities in decades, and Republicans are targeting dozens of Democratic incumbents in competitive districts next year as they look to pick up the half-dozen-or-so seats needed to recapture control of the lower chamber.

The DCCC, meanwhile, is targeting a narrower set of GOP-held congressional districts next year as they look to protect some of their most vulnerable incumbents.