Democrats across the country won upsets despite being vastly outspent by Republicans, sometimes doubly in marquee races.
But candidates who narrowly lost in Southern states wonder if that blue wave could have reached them too if only their party’s leaders funded them.
In Florida, the Democratic candidates for Senate and governor who came within several points of victories criticized national Democrats for declining requests to send more money despite signs they could win in a Republican stronghold.
Several Louisiana Democrats said the party squandered an opportunity to pull off another Senate win in a state where farmer Jamie Davis lost his race for an open seat by less than two percentage points. Mississippi Senate Democratic candidate Scott Colom, who is narrowly leading with thousands of outstanding ballots and didn’t get national party funding until the very end of the campaign, has lamented that Democrats often don’t see the state as worth competing in.
The disagreement over spending decisions reflects the complicated and at times unpredictable landscape of money in politics.
Democrats were able to win in other states despite being significantly outspent by Republicans, including Texas and Ohio. But the difference is the Democrats there still raised and received enough help from outside groups to blanket airwaves and run robust campaigns. With such narrow margins without significant financial support, some of the losing Democratic candidates and their allies say national funding could have closed that final gap to victory.
“We missed an historic opportunity,” Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly said in a statement.
Jolly came within two points of beating Republican Byron Donalds, who raised more than $170 million to the Democrat’s more than $26 million. The Democratic Governors Association announced $1 million for Jolly at the end of the campaign, a relative pittance in one of the most expensive states to run advertising statewide. This year’s race was a stark contrast to Florida’s last governor’s race, when Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who was term-limited this year and is making plans for a 2028 presidential run, won by 20 percentage points.
If national investment had come through, Jolly said, “without question we would have won.” The DGA declined to comment. Of this year’s 36 gubernatorial races, Democrats won 29, meaning the party will lead a majority of states for the first time since 2010.
Angie Nixon, the Democratic Senate candidate in Florida, asked supporters after her three percentage-point loss to Sen. Ashley Moody (R) to “imagine what would have happened if we had more investment early on.”
In September, Nixon told MSNOW she asked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) for funding, and he was hesitant. The Democrats’ Senate campaign arm ultimately did not spend on her race, though Schumer helped her fundraise last month. Moody had more than 60 times the amount of outside money supporting her, according to the latest FEC filings.
National Democrats have made the case that they entered races where their money could go the furthest as the party sought to win back control of Congress. They point to investments elsewhere in the South, made in media markets where it’s cheaper to run ads, on races that became suddenly more competitive, such as the Senate campaigns of Annie Andrews in South Carolina and Colom in Mississippi. Other battleground states such as Texas and Ohio where polls showed the Democrats more competitive were expensive to compete in, diverting money that could have been spent elsewhere.
Democrats will hold at least 54 Senate seats in January and are leading in the Mississippi and Alaska races that are too close to call. The spending debate also shows the reality of any election — blue wave or not, there are always surprising races or unexpected battlegrounds that can prompt grumblings that more money could’ve made a difference.
Lauren French, a spokesperson for the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC, said in a statement that the group had spent “every dollar at its disposal to help build the largest Senate majority in decades.” She added that their spending helped keep those races competitive even as Republicans spent nearly double across the same states.
Steve Schale, a longtime Democratic strategist in Florida, said more money would have helped in races like Nixon’s but it’s difficult to assess whether it would’ve led to victory.
“It’s easy to say if they had just written a larger check,” Schale said. “And it’s not an unfair criticism, but I also understand that these committees don’t have unlimited money.”
Others who criticize how national Democrats spend their money say the decisions show the weaknesses in their strategy. Some activists and Black Democrats say the party has overlooked the South, including Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee.
The four states were among those where Republicans redrew favorable congressional districts this cycle and would probably target again ahead of 2028. They have large groups of Black voters, who drove Democrats to wins in some tough races this year.
Several Democratic candidates came just shy of unseating Republicans in South Florida. In Tennessee, where state Republicans redrew House maps to ensure no Democrat could win, Democrat Victoria Broderick, who raised less than $100,000, is on the verge of ousting Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R), who raised more than $667,000. Democrat Justin Pearson came just shy of defeating Republican Brent Taylor for a redrawn district.
In Alabama, Rep. Shomari Figures (D) won reelection in a redrawn district with the support of national Democratic groups. But Doug Jones, a former Democratic senator, lost the race for governor by a surprisingly close four percentage-point margin.
“We need to invest in the South people,” Joe Trippi, a strategist who has advised Jones, said on X, adding that Democrats have “been fighting to build a competitive party across the South for years. Maybe now the party will listen.”
In Louisiana, Davis came remarkably close to flipping an open Senate seat. On his own, he raised $5 million to his Republican opponent, Rep. Julia Letlow, who raised $2 million, according to the latest campaign finance filings.
As polls began to show a closer race than expected, Louisiana Rep. Troy A. Carter (D) said he had asked national Democrats for $2 million to support Davis during the last three weeks of the campaign. Another sign that Letlow was in trouble came Monday when President Donald Trump held a tele-rally for her.
Carter said Democrats sent some money, but it was “not nearly as much as we would have liked.” He declined to say to whom he had made the request and where the spending came from. (Late spending is reflected in FEC filings only after the general election.)
Carter said the lack of strong spending reflected a long-standing reluctance from Democrats to invest in certain parts of the South. That will need to change, he said, as a score of high-profile Democrats eye the presidency in 2028.
“I believed then, and I believe now, that all roads to the White House are through the South,” he said.
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