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Former Obama advisers who host the “Pod Save America” podcast spoke Friday about the purported reasons some major Democratic donors are holding back money as the party sees encouraging signs ahead in November’s midterm elections.
At the Texas Tribune Festival last week, the podcast hosts shared their optimism over Texas turning blue because of Republican struggles in purple states. Dan Pfeiffer spoke about numerous factors working against Republicans, even in rural areas, but still warned that Democrats have far less money to work with, compared to the GOP.
Tommy Vietor replied, “I think those spending restraints compared to the opportunity are why you’re starting to hear some, you know, sort of operatives and candidates like voicing concern and frustration that some of the traditional like big, big donors of the Democratic Party, are not viewing this as the generational opportunity that it could be.”
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Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor spoke at the Texas Tribune Festival on Sept. 25. (Photo by FilmMagic/FilmMagic for HBO)
“Because I was talking to someone today who was like, ‘Let me paint for you the like extreme optimistic picture,’ which is Democrats are not only winning on the generic ballot, but if you look at the top like most salient issues, we are crushing in those areas as well, which was not the case in 2024, right?,” he continued.
Vietor proposed that if the results of this midterm election resemble recent special elections where Democrats overperformed, “it is like truly a historic opportunity to win statewide races, congressional races, down-ballot, up and down. And it just feels like a moment when all the biggest donors in the party should be pushing all their chips in the table as aggressively as possible and not holding back for — I don’t know what reason — Trump bothering them?”
“Yeah, I think there has been a huge shift in the funding approach … in the large donor community since 2024,” Pfeiffer said. “Part of it is people still angry about how that election went and feeling like they lit a billion dollars on fire in that election, which is a fair quibble in some ways.”
“There are a lot of people who are very afraid of being targeted by Trump like that just that your business is going to be targeted,” he continued. “You’re going to have all of a sudden, you’re going to the FBI is going to show up at your door. You’re going to have regulatory scrutiny you wouldn’t have before. And so that has limited money.”
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“Pod Save America” host and former Obama official Tommy Vietor (Pod Save America YouTube channel)
Pfeiffer argued further that this midterm election could possibly lead to a scenario where “you’re looking at one of the largest swings in American history, something where Democrats could pick up races we’ve never even thought possible,” he said. “We’ve been using 2006 as like the most relevant example of an election because it’s you know, it’s an unpopular president, unpopular war, all of that. But it very well could be a little more like ’94, where everything changes where it’s a realigning election.”
Democratic consultant Julian Epstein rejected the podcasters’ comments.
“It’s always funny to me how these group think ‘insiders’ parrot one another, even when they’re ‘consensus’ is obviously wrong. The truth is that the so-called ‘blue tsunami’ is very likely overstated. The margin of error and the 40 battleground congressional districts is more like 2% right now, and we’ve consistently seen Republicans being undersampled in recent years,” he told Fox News Digital.
“Donors are holding back because the Democrats don’t have any attractive, positive agenda,” he continued. “Democrats have an even lower approval rating than the president. Democrats used to be about building; today they are about tax-and-spend redistributionist big government welfare. They are about the victim Olympics.”
“Try going out on the street and ask 10 voters to name three things Democrats stand [for] today. I doubt you’ll find any that can,” Epstein added.
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While Republicans have a significant cash advantage, many still anticipate Democrats will do well in the midterm elections. (Getty Images)
Republican consultant Mary Marslender suggested the podcasters may have a key point.
“Yes, major Democratic donors are holding back, still frustrated by the fallout from the 2024 cycle and increasingly concerned about the party’s direction,” Marslender told Fox News Digital.
“Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign spent a staggering $1.5 billion in just 15 weeks, losing the popular vote, the Electoral College, the Senate, the White female vote, and support among both Latino and working-class voters,” she continued. “That’s the equivalent of spending $25,000 per hour only to lose nearly every key demographic and benchmark the campaign touted as strengths.”
“Major donors who contributed eight-figure sums in 2024 have noticed this poor return on investment and appear less willing to spend this cycle,” she said.
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“Additionally, many major Democratic donors have slowed or withheld contributions because of concerns about the Party’s shift toward socialist policies,” Marslender added. “Unsurprisingly, calls to destroy the country’s financial institutions have not resonated well with wealthy Democratic supporters.”