Hillary Clinton hasn’t removed herself from the spotlight since losing the 2016 election, and she’s staying involved in politics, even if just from the sidelines.
According to newly released FEC documents, Hillary donated $5,000 to 19 Democrat House candidates, and four secretaries of state candidates through her organization “Onward Together.” Eleven of the 19 House candidates are running in Republican-controlled districts that Hillary won in 2016. The candidates are located in districts in California (6), Pennsylvania (3), Illinois (2), and one each in Ohio, Texas, Nevada, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, Georgia, and West Virginia.
Hillary Clinton gives the maximum donations to 19 Democratic House candidates, stepping up her involvement in the 2018 midterms https://t.co/pPPfNgULjp pic.twitter.com/PAzJZdiD3k
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 31, 2018
Democrats need to gain 24 seats to secure a majority in the House. So far, they’ve been greatly out-fundraised by Republicans, which will make achieving that difficult. The Republican National Committee has raised more than $213 million this election cycle, the fastest the committee has reached the milestone in a midterm period. (RNC Doubles DNC Fundraising Ahead of Midterms). The DNC has raised less than half as much money overall, $101 million. Additionally, the RNC has no debt, and nearly $51 million in cash, while the DNC has $6 million in debt and $9 million in cash (as of June).
There’s no doubt that Republicans will maintain their majority in the Senate, but the House is reasonably up for grabs.
According to the website “Election Betting Odds,” there’s a 70% chance that Republicans will hold the House, but a 63% chance Democrats gain a majority in the House (as of today). Still, Democrats are at the brink. According to New York Mag, “the conventional wisdom has been that Democrats need a lead of seven or eight points in the generic congressional ballot, an approximation of the House national popular vote, to feel reasonably confident of their chances. Their lead on the generic ballot is currently at 7.3 percent in the RealClearPolitics polling averages (it was as high as 13 percent last December and as low as 3 percent in the late spring), and 7.7 percent in the FiveThirtyEight averages (which weight polls according to their assessed quality and make adjustments for partisan bias).”
So while the odds slightly favor Democrats current in the House, it’s by a margin that should have them biting their nails.
And, of course, Hillary’s involvement has once again sparked speculation that the failed candidate has big 2020 plans. It doesn’t help that she tweeted out the following just now:
.@CollectivePAC recruits, trains, and funds progressive black candidates at every level of government. They’ve helped elect 23 officials so far and are doing a series of trainings for candidates and operatives with the goal of training 200 people by 2019 and 2020.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 31, 2018
If this is part of Hillary’s larger effort to get back in the political ring, maybe she should end her campaign now before it even begins.
