Republican Party, life and death in the gardener's fund war... Democratic Party's judgment that 'high prices are due to corruption'

(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondent Park Seong-min = With the midterm elections that will determine the future power landscape of the U.S. Congress approaching in three weeks, both Republican and Democratic parties are refining their last-minute election strategies to secure majority positions in the Senate and House of Representatives.

In a situation where not only the House of Representatives but also the Senate majority position was at stake, the Republican Party took advantage of its advantage of possessing a large amount of campaign funds compared to the Democratic Party and began reallocating funds to secure the Senate majority.

The Democratic Party has gone beyond targeting voter dissatisfaction with high inflation and appears to be focusing on sending the message that the corruption of current administration officials, including Donald Trump, and central politicians in Congress is the cause of rising prices.

According to CNN and political media outlet Politico on the 12th (local time), President Trump's largest super PAC (special political action committee), Maga Inc., along with other Republican super PACs, are strategizing how to manage large amounts of funds in the last three weeks of the election.

The strategy includes pausing spending in low-win House districts, channeling funds to other districts to strengthen support base, and focusing money on key Senate battlegrounds to protect the Senate majority.

A senior Republican official told POLITICO, "Over the next week to 10 days, many coordinated, last-minute moves to refine the election structure will take place. It will unfold in all directions. (Fund injection) will be withdrawn from districts where the timing is not deemed appropriate, and more funds will be injected into districts where it is deemed appropriate."

The Senate battlegrounds that the Republican Party focuses on include Kansas, South Carolina, Texas, Ohio, Iowa, and Alaska, where President Trump won the 2024 presidential election.

The Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), a Republican super PAC, withdrew its advertising reservation for the North Carolina Senate election and invested at least $10 million (approximately KRW 13.6 billion) in the Kansas Senate election, where the Democratic Party has not won since 1932, and also provided $5 million in the South Carolina Senate election, also a strong Republican region.

This super PAC also plans to pour more funds into Republican candidate Ken Paxton of Texas, and the total amount is expected to reach $200 million (about 267.2 billion won).

CNN described this change in Republican strategy as a "triage operation."

Due to the increasingly worsening election situation, the Republican Party has no choice but to give up its goal of recapturing seats in places where Democratic support is strong and focus its funds on constituencies and states where the Republican Party is traditionally strong.

The Democratic Party has been emphasizing the Trump administration's mismanagement by highlighting high prices for several months ahead of the midterm elections, but has recently been focusing on messages linking the Trump administration's corruption to high prices.

According to the New York Times (NYT) and Politico, Democratic candidates in close races are focusing on arguing that "Washington is rigged to benefit the wealthy at the expense of ordinary Americans."

This follows a recent national opinion poll conducted by Winning Jobs Narrative Action (WJNA), a Democratic Party-affiliated group, in collaboration with Blue Rose Research, which found that the Democratic Party's message linking corruption to housing, medical care, and living price issues increased voter approval ratings by about 3 percentage points.

WJNA Secretary General Steve Pierce told POLITICO, “Rather than connecting the issue of corruption with democracy, the Democratic Party is connecting it with the issue of the cost of living or the issues that voters are most concerned about. This is a meaningful way to reach voters by connecting it to the issues that voters worry about every day.”

The Democratic Party leadership is promising to implement 'anti-corruption' policies if it wins this election.

Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is likely to be elected Speaker of the House if the Democratic Party wins the House majority, has emphasized that "we will hold those who are corrupt accountable."

“The reality Americans face is that the cost of living is prohibitively high, and Trump and many of his fawning Republicans are so focused on enriching themselves and their families, friends and supporters that they have chosen to do nothing about this problem,” said Representative Jeffries. “Corruption comes at a cost.”

It is unclear whether the subtle changes in strategy made by the Republican and Democratic parties so close to the election will have an actual effect.

The Democratic Party stepped in to provide support, recognizing that the areas where the Republican Party focuses its campaign funds are battlegrounds.

Politico reported that the Senate Majority Pac, the largest Democratic super PAC, is investing $2.5 million in TV advertising funds in Iowa and $7 million in Ohio.

The Republican Party is also using a strategy that links corruption with high prices. A new advertisement recently appeared in Florida attacking incumbent Democratic lawmakers for their stock trading problems.

Mike Marinella, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), told the New York Times, "Voters see through the facade and know that the Republican Party is cleaning up the legacy of corruption left behind by Democratic leaders."