“It’s been a very, I’d say at times, disheartening and sometimes frustrating post-election period of time,” Jacobs said, attributing Democratic losses to New York-specific headwinds, including a strong GOP gubernatorial candidate leading the top of the GOP ticket and poor Democratic countermessaging on crime.Īs the 2024 election nears and national Democrats step into the Empire State, Jacobs disputed accounts the moves are a sign of a lack of confidence in him as a leader. “Jay Jacobs is not fit to serve as Chair of the State Democratic Party,” read the letter, but Jacobs ultimately survived the calls for his ouster and told USA TODAY he plans to dig his way back through 2024. "We are really ground zero politically for maintaining and expanding the House." New York Democratic chair: Party infighting is ‘disheartening and sometimes frustrating’Īfter the November elections, New York Democrats conducted a postmortem, and more than 1,000 individuals and organizations signed on to a letter laying the blame at the feet of Jay Jacobs, the state party chair, and called for his resignation. "It is paramount that we hold those seats," Stefanik told Time. The battleground fund will be dedicated to defending the GOP's newly gained ground in the Empire State. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., House Republican Conference Chair, announced in April that she would be launching a New York “battleground fund" after the fourth-highest-ranking House Republican flexed her fundraising muscles, raising $3 million in the first quarter of 2023. The recognition of the heightened importance of New York has dawned on Republicans as well. “And that’s everything from the debt ceiling to be willing to cut Social Security and Medicare, to be willing to cut infrastructure jobs.” “It’s less about any particular issue and about the gamut of where Republicans stand.” Smith said. Only the 18th Congressional District is held by a Democrat in Rep. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is targeting the same districts. The push is centered on seven seats: New York’s 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 22nd Congressional Districts. “We’re planning to invest in everything from messaging research, to voter registration, field planning (to) Republican credibility,” Smith told USA TODAY.Īll that messaging, including billboards and digital ads, is coming from a New York-based rapid-response war room handled by multiple communications and opposition-research staffers. That unprecedented amount of cash will run the gamut, according to Mike Smith, president of House Majority PAC and former top aide to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. House Majority PAC, House Democrats’ largest super PAC, said in February that it would funnel $45 million to New York. Stay in the conversation on politics: Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter Money flows into New York ahead of 2024 electionsĪfter seeing what happened in 2022, national Democrats have recognized they can't afford to lose New York in 2024. “You can’t take it for granted because it never should have been taken for granted,” Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime New York-based Democratic strategist and president of Sheinkopf Communications, told USA TODAY. Now, Democrats are looking to reclaim lost ground in 2024 and usher in a new era of leadership, elevating House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to serve as the first Black speaker of the House.ĭemocratic strategists and leaders put it simply to USA TODAY: In 2022 and all elections before, New York was taken for granted. Republicans there flipped four Democratic seats and snagged several other competitive races. Unexpectedly, the state that helped Republicans to clinch the House with a five-seat majority was reliably blue New York. They came close but ultimately couldn't hand Biden another two years of total Democratic control in Washington. By the end of the cycle, they expanded their majority in the Senate and narrowly lost control of the House.
Democrats defied expectations in the 2022 midterm elections, beating back President Joe Biden’s low approval ratings and record inflation.
0 kommentar(er)
