The radical-left group League of Conservation Voters announced that it’s pledging $120 million to spend on the Biden campaign. The pledge brings the total amount of cash pledged by independent left-wing groups to more than a billion dollars.
The self-described “good government” group End Citizens United told the New York Times, “The sheer scale of what we’re talking about has never been seen before in our country’s history.”
The independent organizations include climate advocacy groups, labor unions, and conventional Super PACs like MoveOn.org.
Combine that with the $2 billion the Biden campaign expects to spend to re-elect him and Republicans have a daunting task to remain competitive.
That billion dollars in pledges hasn’t been raised yet. Unlike Democrats, Republicans don’t announce ahead of time how much they’re going to contribute. But most of the outside radical left groups pledging money have been doing it for years and have a great deal of experience meeting fundraising goals.
The Super PAC Future Forward has pledged $250 million to the cause, while the radical-left union SEIU says it will spend $200 million. Another PAC, American Bridge, claims it will spend $120 million on anti-Trump media before the election.
Stephanie Schriock, the former president of Emily’s List, the group that supports and funds Democratic women running for office, said she expected the amount of outside money backing Mr. Biden to reach $2.5 billion to $3 billion, with large sums to be spent on legal issues and get-out-the-vote efforts this fall.
Major Democratic donors, Ms. Schriock said, have been animated in recent weeks as Mr. Trump neared and then clinched the Republican presidential nomination.
“Folks just did not want to believe that it was going to be Donald Trump again,” said Schrock. “The whole concept that this was happening again just sort of froze them and since Super Tuesday that has changed. People are like, ‘Oh, this is happening and this is real.’”
As for Republicans and Trump, they have a long way to go.
One Republican group that has made public its plans is Faith & Freedom, the conservative organization led by Ralph Reed, a Trump ally, which said last week that it would spend $62 million to register and turn out evangelical voters for Mr. Trump.
Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC that backs Senate Republican candidates, has also reserved $130 million in advertising time for the Senate races in Ohio and Montana.
The main Trump super PAC has spent $380,000 on radio ads targeting Black voters. On the day of Mr. Biden’s State of the Union address this month, another pro-Trump super PAC spent $500,000 on TV ads.
We’ve seen in recent election cycles that raising gobs of money doesn’t necessarily lead to victory. But what Biden is raising is on a scale never before seen in politics.
The question is, what happens if Biden raises all this money and Trump wins anyway? Maybe the FBI should start keeping an eye on liberal groups because they are not going to be pleased if Trump comes out on top.
Perhaps the sheer scale of what Biden is doing will turn voters off. Election advertising is more of a leap of faith than science. However, a study done earlier this century found that political advertising does encourage turnout as long as the message is “positive.” Conversely, negative ads suppress turnout.
Given that the hatred of Donald Trump is going to be coming through loud and clear in Biden’s and independent groups’ advertising, maybe $3 billion in anti-Trump ads will backfire.