CHICAGO — House Democrats are in love with their candidates in the quest to retake the majority, but you won’t find them here at the city hosting the party’s national convention. Candidates avoiding the parties’ parties has become nearly as much of a tradition as the conventions themselves.
“We have incredible candidates with unique voices for the needs of their districts,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairwoman Suzan DelBene said in a press briefing on Monday. She was wearing a “4 more in ’24” button, a reference to the number of seats Democrats need to gain to win the House majority. “[They are] all independent thinkers and results-oriented leaders in touch with their communities.”
Despite the pride Democrats have for their 30 Red-to-Blue candidates — those are the Democrats challenging Republican incumbents or running in competitive open seats — they’re virtually invisible here in the Windy City.
At a time of decreased ticket-splitting between the presidential race and congressional races, there’s a bipartisan fear of being coupled with the national party and being subsequently dragged down by the top of the ticket. So party strategists unofficially recommend that candidates running in competitive districts stay home and stay away from the conventions. That could also mean walking away from an opportunity to build a profile and boost fundraising.
Utah Republican Mia Love recalled raising $500,000 after her prime-time address to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., in 2012.
“Obviously you get exposure, particularly to a national base of donors,” said former New York Rep. Steve Israel, who was chairman of the DCCC during the 2012 presidential cycle. “You also get a tweetable moment that can be sent out and result in quick clicks of campaign donations.”
But that’s if a candidate can get time on the stage.
Alabama Democrat Shomari Figures is the lone Red-to-Blue candidate scheduled to speak on the stage here this week, and he’s running in a court-ordered redrawn district that President Joe Biden would have won with 56 percent.
In 2016, the last time the parties had traditional, robust conventions, Florida Democrats Val B. Demings and Stephanie Murphy were two of the only House candidates to get a couple of minutes in the spotlight. They took the stage that year on the second night in Philadelphia with House leader Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic women of the House, including second-term Rep. DelBene.
The lack of attention to the House is not unique to Democrats.
Out of the four days of programming at the Republican National Convention, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson of North Carolina was given three minutes to highlight the fight for the House on the final night, when convention organizers prioritized former President Donald Trump’s speech and his lead-ins, including Hulk Hogan and Kid Rock.
It wasn’t enough time to spotlight individual candidates from the main stage, but Hudson worked to get some of them attention in media interviews throughout the week in Milwaukee. Hudson was one of a handful of GOP House candidates who received some stage time in Tampa in 2012.
While none of the NRCC’s Young Guns candidates had stage time this year, nearly an hour was dedicated to the GOP’s Senate candidates on the RNC’s Tuesday night. Kari Lake of Arizona, Eric Hovde of Wisconsin, Bernie Moreno of Ohio, Mike Rogers of Michigan, Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania, Jim Justice of West Virginia, Jim Banks of Indiana, Tim Sheehy of Montana, Sam Brown of Nevada and Hung Cao of Virginia each had about as much time as Hudson.
The fight for the House is just as close as the fight for the Senate.
But given the parties’ focus on the White House and Senate, and the potential risk of being coupled with the more ideological figures of each party, staying away from the conventions is standard operating procedure for House candidates who aren’t already in Congress.
Campaigns are inching toward the sprint to Election Day and meeting with voters in the district is viewed as a safer investment than a potential bank shot from a convention moment, which needs to be communicated on social media, then to raise money, which needs to be turned into ads, and then connect well enough to potentially reach a wider swath of voters.
Even in a sea of party faithful and potential donors, it’s hard for a House candidate to make a splash at the convention without stage time, according to one veteran strategist.
Staying home is even common in districts where being tied to the top of the ticket may not be a liability.
“We thought it was more important to keep doing the work in the district,” Democrat George Whitesides said on Monday night after the first evening of the convention. The former NASA chief of staff, who was in the DCCC’s first round of Red to Blue candidates in January, is challenging Republican incumbent Mike Garcia in a seat north of Los Angeles that Biden won with 55 percent in 2020. “My focus is on winning California’s 27th,” added Whitesides, who said his campaign will host a DNC viewing party with supporters in the district on Thursday night.
Even if some of Democrats’ top-tier recruits had made the trek here and were given time on the stage, it probably would have been in the late afternoon and not in prime time.
“I thought I would be speaking to a nation on the edge of their seats,” Israel recalled of his speaking slot at the 2012 DNC in Charlotte, N.C. “But I was like an ‘I Love Lucy’ rerun at 4 p.m., when the only people in the actual hall were my parents.”
Nathan L. Gonzales is an elections analyst with CQ Roll Call.
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