Election 2024

Support Us

DNC announces major investment push in Nevada, other battleground states

Jacob Solis
Jacob Solis
Election 2020ElectionsIndyBlog
SHARE
A collection of political buttons

The Democratic National Committee announced Tuesday that it was launching a second round of a major investment initiative in key 2020 battlegrounds, including Nevada, Georgia, New Hampshire, Ohio, Texas and Virginia. 

In addition to existing DNC funding efforts in a number of rustbelt swing states won by President Donald Trump in 2016, the new money — dubbed “Battleground Build-up 2020” — will go toward a rapid build-up of campaign infrastructure ahead of what is expected to be a hard-fought general election later this year. 

The DNC said in a release that the investments will go toward doubling the number of field organizers, opening additional field offices and funding new data and operations staff, all with the stated goal of, among other things, “expanding the pathways for our eventual nominee to secure 270 electoral votes.”

The DNC did not announce totals for either round of spending. However, the DNC announced last month that it had raised more than $95 million in 2019, eclipsing the $72 million brought in by the Republican National Committee. 

That gap persists when the fundraising totals of each party are combined with those of their presidential candidates; Trump and the RNC raised $463 million through 2019, while the wide Democratic presidential field combined with the DNC to raise roughly $580 million on the year. 

The Electoral College strategy of the Trump campaign proved decisive in 2016, winning 304 electoral votes even as the celebrity real-estate magnate lost the popular vote by a margin of more than 3 million votes. 

The party-level investment comes as the landscape of electoral swing states continue to shift between the two major parties. As states such as Ohio and Florida have trended toward Republicans, states such as Nevada and Virginia emerged as more blue than purple in elections in 2016 and 2018. 

The money also comes as Democrats look to maintain control of a House majority—one secured in 2018 largely on the backs of more than three-dozen moderate Democrats who swept competitive suburban districts. That includes Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, where incumbent Democrat Susie Lee has already become a frequent target of the national Republican Party’s advertising machine. 

SHARE

Get more election coverage

Click to view our election page