Why Democratic megadonors poured millions into blue New York and California
The nation’s largest network of left-leaning megadonors poured millions of dollars into California and New York House races this year to build a get-out-the-vote operation in states so blue that Democrats have not bothered to build much political infrastructure, revealing previously unknown details about the effort to NBC News.
The nation’s largest network of left-leaning megadonors poured millions of dollars into California and New York House races this year to build a get-out-the-vote operation in states so blue that Democrats have not bothered to build much political infrastructure, revealing previously unknown details about the effort to NBC News.
Many Democrats credit failures in New York with costing them the House of Representatives in 2022. This year, analysts think the battle for the narrowly divided chamber could come down to New York and California, which between them have at least 17 contested congressional races, including more than half of the most expensive contests in the country.
After the 2022 losses, the Democracy Alliance, which funds a vast array of left-leaning causes and advocacy groups, decided to wade deeper into electoral politics than it typically does by partnering with unions to fund massive field organizing efforts in two states that will get practically zero resources from the presidential or Senate campaigns.
“2022 was a wakeup call,” Democracy Alliance president Pamela Shifman said in an interview. “The reality is that blue states like New York and California often get overlooked by national organizations and national donors because they’re not presidential battlegrounds. But the reality is that the road the House runs right through New York and California.”
The Democracy Alliance said it raised over $11 million for its Battleground NY effort, which went into building what Shifman called was the largest field operation in the state. The group said its canvassers have knocked on 370,000 doors and registered more than 24,000 voters, which it notes is larger than the win margin of targeted GOP candidates who won in 2022.
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