Former senator and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton donated the maximum amount allowed to a slew of Democratic candidates running in the 2018 midterms, including 19 House races and four secretary of state campaigns.
Clinton made the contributions through her Onward Together organization back in June, giving $5,000 each to 23 Democrats, CNN reported based on Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings. She also donated to several Democratic political action committees.
CNN reported:
The donations represent the most concentrated midterm effort the former Democratic presidential nominee has made to date and further thrust Clinton into an election that will be the most potent judgment on Trump since he defeated her two years earlier.
Eleven of the House candidates who received donations from Clinton are vying to flip districts represented by Republicans in Congress that she won in 2016.
Representatives from Clinton’s team and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) worked together to target which candidates Clinton should back to stay in line with the party’s 2018 strategy, officials with both groups tell CNN.
”All along the goal has been singular. Do whatever it takes to lift up candidates and organizations who will be terrific stewards of Democratic values,” Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Clinton told CNN. “That’s what we have done with our partner organizations at OT, and it’s what our objective is when it comes to supporting individual candidates.”
“There has never been a more important midterm election, and Secretary Clinton is going to do her part to lift up the next generation of leaders,” Merrill said.
CNN reported that all but four of the candidates Clinton donated to are on the group’s “Red to Blue” list, a compilation of candidates that Democrats believe have the best chance of winning Republican districts in the midterms.
The Democrats Clinton donated to include:
•Aftab Pureval in Ohio’s 1st Congressional District
•Sean Casten in Illinois’ 6th Congressional District
•Gina Ortiz Jones in Texas’ 23rd Congressional District
•Harley Rouda in California’s 48th Congressional District
•Jason Crow in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District
•Josh Harder in California’s 10th Congressional District
•Katie Hill in California’s 25th Congressional District
•Lauren Underwood in Illinois’ 14th Congressional District
•Mike Levin in California’s 49th Congressional District
•Steven Horsford in Nevada’s 4th Congressional District
•Katie Porter in California’s 45th Congressional District
•Scott Wallace in Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District
•Susan Wild in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District
•TJ Cox in California’s 21st Congressional District
•Jennifer Wexton in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District
Clinton also donated to $5,000 each to four Secretary of State candidates — Nelson Araujo from Nevada, Deidre DeJear from Iowa, Jocelyn Benson from Michigan, and Kathleen Clyde from Ohio.
She also donated to three congressional PACs — the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ Bold PAC, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus ASPIRE PAC, and the Congressional Black Caucus PAC, according to CNN.
“Democrats all across the country are unified behind taking back the House,” Meredith Kelly, communications director for DCCC, said in CNN’s report. “The more that people step up and invest in our incredible candidates, the more they can communicate their records of service to voters and the better off we are.”
Jesse Hunt, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), agrees that Clinton’s move is a good thing but for a very different reason.
“The longer a scandal-plagued Hillary Clinton lingers in American politics, the worse off House Democrats will be,” Hunt said in a statement about Clinton’s donations. “We can only hope the Pelosi/Clinton tandem takes their show on the road this fall.”
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