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National Dems to deliver more than $1M a month to state parties
People move about the Guilford County Democratic Party headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Nov. 7, 2022. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
The Democratic National Committee will transfer more than $1 million per month to its state and territorial parties over the next four years in an effort to build state-level infrastructure and operations, the DNC announced Thursday.
The agreement marks the DNC’s largest total investment in Democratic state parties to date and comes as Democrats try to rebound from significant losses in the 2024 election cycle.
Each state party is set to receive a minimum of $17,500 per month, a $5,000 increase from the current baseline, the DNC said in materials provided to States Newsroom ahead of the wider announcement.
Republican-controlled states will get an additional $5,000 a month, bringing their monthly total to $22,500. The GOP-controlled states will get that additional investment through the DNC’s Red State Fund.
The DNC’s definition for a GOP-controlled state is one that meets at least two of the three criteria: no Democratic governor or Democratic U.S. Senator; one-quarter or less of the congressional delegation is made up of Democrats; and Republicans hold supermajorities in both state legislative chambers.
As part of the agreement, the DNC said it will host six regional training “bootcamps” for state parties per two-year cycle and will also hire new staff to the Association of State Democratic Committees.
The DNC said the initiative also aims to help Democratic state parties with their infrastructure, staffing, data and tech operations as well as with organizing programs and preparation for future election cycles.
DNC Chair Ken Martin, the former Minnesota party chair who was elected to lead the national party in February, called the initiative “a historic political investment unlike anything Democrats have done in modern times” and said in a statement it is part of a long-term strategy.
“We’re putting our money where our mouth is to equip state parties with what they need to reach working families who deserve better, build long-term success all across the ballot, and gain electoral ground for years to come,” Martin said in the statement.
“Elections are won in states — and that’s exactly where we will be investing our resources,” said Martin.
Last week, Martin laid out the leadership board’s organizing principles, which centered on “organizing early, organizing always, organizing everywhere, and winning everywhere.”
“You’re going to continue to witness a level of aggressive investment and organizing from this DNC that’s unlike anything we’ve done before,” Martin wrote in that memo.
In a Thursday statement, Jane Kleeb, president of the Association of State Democratic Committees and chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said “state parties are the backbone of the Democratic Party, and through this investment, our state parties will receive the support they need to show voters that, no matter where they live, there is a strong Democratic Party in their corner, protecting their rights and economic opportunity against Republican attacks.”
20 years later
The strategy bears some resemblance to the 50-state strategy pioneered by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who led the DNC from 2005 to 2009 and appeared on a DNC press call Thursday.
“This is a really critical move that’s being made here,” Dean said. “We have not been anything but a Washington, D.C.-centric party since 2008, and the reason that the Democrats have had a tough time is because if you’re not out there doing the grassroots politics, you don’t win. Period.”
Critics during Dean’s tenure argued that spending in deep-red areas pulled resources away from winnable races in more moderate states and congressional districts.
Asked on the press call whether the push to spread money to more states could lead to a decline in financial support to swing states, Martin said, “No, not at all.”
“I mean, as I said, there’s no such thing as a perpetual blue state or a perpetual red state, and over the years, because there’s been a lack of investment in blue states, as an example, by other partners in the ecosystem, not necessarily the DNC, it’s meant we’ve seen actually our vote share in some of the bluest parts of the country actually starting to decrease,” he said.
“I believe you have to invest everywhere and organize everywhere if you want to win everywhere, and so, that’s what this will do.”
