A liberal group whose purpose is to get Democrats elected in state legislatures throughout the country revealed Wednesday that it is focusing on state Houses in Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Michigan in the 2024 election cycle.
It’s all part of the group’s plan to protect the majorities that liberals have in those states.
In a memo released on Wednesday, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee said it’s identified the potential opportunities to flip seats in both the state Senates and state Houses in New Hampshire and Arizona, plus in Pennsylvania’s state Senate.
Some of those states are expected to be huge battlegrounds during the election cycle this year — both in the presidential election between presumed candidates Donald Trump and President Joe Biden and in the Senate.
Democrats will try to convince more people to turn up at the polls this year — or to vote via mail — as higher turnout typically benefits liberal candidates. Republicans and Democrats are in heated battles for the control over state legislatures, as well as in Congress and the White House.
According to data from Ballotpedia, Republicans control 57 state-level chambers, while Democrats only control 41.
The DLCC isn’t just focusing on holding onto the current majorities they have at the state level. It’s also hoping to cut into the majorities that the GOP has in various states.
Some of the big targets in this regard for the DLCC are both chambers of Wisconsin’s state government, the North Carolina state Senate and state House, the Kansas state Senate and state House, and the Georgia state House.
At the same time, the DLCC said in its memo this week that battles over redistricting in both Wisconsin and Georgia could ultimately affect how the organization ends up viewing the election battles there.
According to the memo, the DLCC last month pledged funding to help further their cause in many battleground states. This includes $15,000 for North Carolina, $24,000 for Wisconsin, $30,000 for Pennsylvania, $50,000 for New Hampshire, $70,000 for Arizona and $82,000 for Michigan.
In a statement, Heather Williams, the president of the DLCC, said:
“The DLCC has raised over $21 million so far this cycle, a record amount for our organization and we experienced four consecutive quarters of growth, despite negative industry trends affecting many of our peer organizations.
“With newfound attention on this level of the ballot, the DLCC plans to harness this energy and execute our roadmap strategy laid out in this memo.”
Democrats are hoping to capitalize on recent success the party has had in elections.
They outperformed the expectations of many political pundits in the 2022 midterm elections, quashing the projected “red wave” to actually expand their majority in the U.S. Senate, while only having the GOP gain a slight majority in the U.S. House.
Democrats also performed well in state-level special elections last year, such as in New Jersey and Virginia.
And, of course, President Joe Biden was able to win the White House during the 2020 presidential election.
