RALEIGH — North Carolina Democrats and allied groups kept raising massive amounts of cash in the fall campaign’s final weeks toward goals of ending Republican dominance of the legislature, defeating constitutional referendums and expanding control of the state Supreme Court.
The state Democratic Party alone raised $6.5 million during the three-and-a-half months ending Oct. 20, bringing their haul during the two-year cycle to $14 million, according to campaign reports due this week at the state elections board.
That compares to the state Republican Party’s reported totals of $4.7 million in the third quarter and $8.7 million overall — numbers otherwise considered robust for a midterm election cycle with no major statewide races on the ballot. At the same time during the 2014 midterm election, the GOP had raised $7.1 million overall compared to $4.4 million for the Democratic Party.
But this hasn’t been a normal cycle for state Democrats in an all-out effort to wrest veto-proof majorities from the Republicans in the House and Senate, which if successful would give Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper more leverage on public school, tax and health care policy. GOP legislative leaders also have pushed through laws chipping away at Cooper’s executive powers since he was narrowly elected in late 2016.
“It’s an exciting year to be a Democrat in North Carolina,” state party spokesman Robert Howard said in a release. “Our strong financial footing mirrors the enthusiasm we’re seeing on the ground.”
Separately, four committees working for or against some or all of the six proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot have raised over $17 million combined, according to their reports. The questions, submitted to voters by Republican lawmakers, in part would require photo identification to vote, lower the state’s income tax rate cap and swing judicial vacancy and election board appointment authority from Cooper to the legislature.
Cooper, who is not on the ballot until 2020, has helped raise at least $7 million of the state Democratic Party’s dollars since beginning the “Break the Majority” effort last year, according to Morgan Jackson, his political consultant.
Party and candidate totals don’t tell the full story. A political committee separate from the state GOP and largely funded by Senate Republicans to help their candidates reported collecting $3 million in the past three-and-a-half months, with $1.6 million coming from Senate leader Phil Berger. In the past, this money would be recorded as going into the state GOP.
But Democrats are outspending several key GOP incumbents as the state Democratic Party sends money to candidate committees for mailers and TV ads, with the largest amounts going to challengers in Charlotte and Raleigh media markets.
Democrats need to win four more House seats or six Senate seats Tuesday to end the GOP’s veto-proof control.
The state has garnered attention from Democratic donors nationwide since the legislature’s 2016 passage of a “bathroom bill” affecting transgender people and wide-ranging election legislation in 2013 that placed more restrictions on voting. Both were struck down by courts or scaled back.
“The perception of us being this moderate, progressive state to one in which Republicans took a very bold and conservative approach to governing … that shift basically created attention for North Carolina that we haven’t seen in a long time,” campaign finance analyst Jonathan Kappler with the North Carolina Free Enterprise Foundation said Wednesday.
On the referendums, the group “Stop Deceptive Amendments” reported collecting $7.5 million through Oct. 22, and “By the People,” which also opposes all six amendments, received $1.1 million in donations, according to summary pages of their finances.
There is no prominent group actively supporting all six amendments beyond the state GOP. But “Marsy’s Law for North Carolina,” campaigning for the referendum to expand crime victims’ rights, has received $7.9 million. All came from the national Marsy’s Law group. A pro-voter ID committee also reports collecting at least $670,000.
For the state Supreme Court, Democratic candidate Anita Earls reported raising nearly $1.5 million overall and $983,000 in the third quarter — historic levels for an individual committee in a statewide judicial race. Earls is running against Associate Justice Barbara Jackson and attorney Chris Anglin, both registered Republicans. Jackson has raised $276,000 overall.
A victory for Earls, a Durham civil rights lawyer who has gained attention nationally for successfully suing to overturn Republican redistricting maps, would give Democrats a 5-2 seat advantage on the court.