Hillary Clinton’s campaign has a message to its big donors: Shift your money down-ticket to win back a Democratic Senate majority.
That’s the implicit signal being sent by Clinton’s allies to their big donors in the final two weeks of the campaign season. A Clinton ally tells CNN that the Democratic nominee has no more campaign fundraising events, and instead wants her donors to try to win back a Senate majority.
“At this point, she’s not doing any big money fundraisers any more because she wants people to be giving to Senate campaigns,” a Clinton ally says.
Specifically, the Clinton campaign wants its top bundlers and deep-pocketed donors to give money to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s super PAC, the Senate Majority PAC. Already Clinton donors have given a combined $7.5 million to the super PAC, the source says, with more to come in the coming days.
While candidates don’t often raise money in the final two weeks of the campaign, Clinton’s move underscores just how close the battle is for control of the Senate. Democrats need to pick up four seats if Clinton wins the White House, and they have ample opportunities in seven states controlled by Republicans, defending just one in Nevada.
To save their majority, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, along with the National Republican Senatorial Committee, both announced $30 million in new ads across six states. And Democrats want to respond in-kind with more money from Reid’s political machine.
J.B. Pritzker, a 2008 national co-chairman for the Clinton campaign and now a major donor, told CNN Tuesday that privately big donors had been shifting their resources downticket for some time. But now the focus will intensify, he said.
“Hillary is pulling out all the stops for the Senate Democrats, so we want to follow her lead,” said Pritzker, who said he¹s already given about $1.5 million to various Senate Democratic candidates and the Senate Majority PAC. “I want to support a Democratic Senate. We¹re all going to help.”
