Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signs copies of her new book ‘What Happened’ at a book signing in Barnes and Noble bookstore on September 12, 2017 in New York City, NY, USA. (Photo: AP)
Hillary Clinton will headline three fundraising events for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in San Francisco, Chicago and New York. The DNC turned to the 2016 nominee amid lackluster fundraising under Chairman Tom Perez.
Democrats hope she will boost the party’s chances of seizing control of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate in November. Given the sheer size of Mrs. Clinton’s donor rolodex and the number of Republican-held districts that voted for her over President Donald Trump, it’s an unsurprising move.
NBC News reported the first invitations were set to go out Monday night for a September event in San Francisco, billed as “intimate dinners with discussion.” But there are other reasons some Democrats are happy to have the former secretary of state fundraising instead of campaigning.
Mrs. Clinton has made more than a few gaffes in public since she lost the 2016 presidential election in the most shocking upset in modern political history.
Last March in Mumbai, India, she trashed voters in America’s Heartland and dismissed their lack of support for her candidacy as “backwards” and racist. Last May, she said being a capitalist hurt her in the 2016 primaries because the Democratic base is filled with socialists.
Naturally, Republicans insist any involvement from Mrs. Clinton will prove to be a net positive for them, political speaking.
“The longer a scandal-plagued Hillary Clinton lingers in American politics, the worse off House Democrats will be,” Jesse Hunt, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) said.
The DNC’s lackluster fundraising capabilities has been well-reported and documented since Mr. Perez took over as chair. The committee has had to take out loans to effectively keep the lights on, and some Democrats quietly question whether the party can compete on a nationwide scale in November.
The party’s special election candidates have succeeded on the back of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), essentially alone. The DCCC, and more so liberal PACs, are largely backed by big donors, specifically in those three cities.
According to the latest filings, the DNC is $6.3 million in debt with only $9 million cash on hand (CoH). That compares to the Republican National Committee (RNC), which has $50.7 million CoH and zero in debt. For just the 2018 cycle, the DNC has only raised $110 million juxtaposed to $213 million taken in by the RNC.
Mr. Perez recently pushed through a resolution that activists argued effectively reversed a ban on donations from fossil fuel companies. The move, which came just two months after they adopted a resolution banning donations from fossil fuel companies by a unanimous vote, infuriated activists.
