Democrats Set Ambitious Spending Plan for State Legislative Races

The Democratic Party’s organization that focuses on state legislative races is planning its largest campaign budget ever as it seeks to flip five chambers in three critical swing states, as well as defend three recently earned majorities, according to a memo of the group’s 2024 strategy obtained by The New York Times.

The group, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, plans to target Republican majorities in both chambers of the legislatures in Arizona and New Hampshire, as well as the Pennsylvania Senate. And it will seek to defend razor-thin house majorities in Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

The budget — at least $60 million — underscores the importance of state legislatures. Once dismissed as mere policy laboratories, they have become arbiters of many of the nation’s most pressing political debates.

The D.L.C.C. has been clear that its final spending will depend on its ability to raise money in a presidential election year, and that it has not yet reached the $60 million goal.

For much of the past decade, Democrats played catch-up with Republicans, who invested significantly more resources into state-level races and were able to control the 2010 redistricting cycle. Republican-controlled legislatures then drew gerrymandered maps in critical swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that helped lock in Republican power.

But since the 2020 election, Democrats have won a series of statewide victories, at least in part because issues like abortion access and voting rights are governed not by a deadlocked U.S. Congress but by state legislatures.

Still, even with Democrats’ recent successes, Republicans continue to hold an overall legislative advantage, controlling 57 chambers to the Democrats’ 41.

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