It’s not just Senate Republicans boasting of huge donations.
The main super PAC boosting Senate Democrats, Senate Majority PAC, will report its most impressive fundraising haul yet Thursday after raising $19.3 million in the first three weeks of October. That sum — arriving at the door as Senate Democrats grew increasingly likely to recapture the upper body — is $7 million more than it has raised in any complete month ever, never mind an abridged three-week reporting period.
The group did not immediately release a list of its contributors, which will become public later Thursday — but the quick fundraising pace strongly hints at a massive gift by one or a few Democratic megadonors.
And despite it being a down-ballot group, their haul surprisingly exceeds the record amount that this cycle’s top presidential super PAC, the pro-Hillary Clinton group Priorities USA, raised in October. Backed by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, the Senate Majority PAC said it had $13 million on hand as of October 20.
Two years ago at this same point, the group had just one-quarter of that amount in its war chest.
The cash could perhaps soothe what have been tense discussions within Democratic leadership about which Senate races should receive any remaining dollars in the PAC’s bank account.
“Record setting support has us well positioned for this final stretch of the cycle,” said Shripal Shah, a PAC spokesperson. “In less than two weeks Democrats are going to take back the Senate.”
For months, Republicans inherited a windfall of cash from GOP donors who are uneasy about the presidential race and eager to send their money elsewhere. The Senate Leadership Fund, the principal Republican rival to Senate Majority PAC, this week unveiled a new $25 million advertising push in the half-dozen states that will decide the race — suggesting that they, too, have seen a late injection of resources.
But as Clinton appears to pull away in the presidential race, enthusiasm among Democratic donors may belatedly and similarly trickle downballot. Clinton’s campaign has signaled that it wants its donors to give to Reid’s PAC, according to one Clinton ally, and her donors have given a combined $7.5 million to the group.