Western New York Democrats salivating at the chance to flip a deep red Republican congressional seat aren’t getting much national help to defeat Rep. Chris Collins, who is running while under indictment for insider trading.
With the election five weeks away, Democrat Nate McMurray hasn’t gotten much help from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
But McMurray said he’s ready to take on the fight on his own.
“At this point, I don’t care,” McMurray said of largely being ignored by national Democrats.
“I think a lot of people here are disappointed that those guys just can’t see the energy and enthusiasm we have here. True leadership shouldn’t come from DC, it should come from the grassroots.”
Meanwhile, Collins has aired two TV ads, despite getting no financial assistance from the National Republican Congressional Committee.
He was indicted in August on insider trading charges and initially suspended his campaign, before changing his mind in September and announcing he’s seeking re-election.
McMurray got a fundraising jolt in August raising nearly $142,000 in the weeks following Collins’ indictment through Act Blue online donations, records show. Donations then tapered off, but recently surged again, McMurray said.
The 27th Congressional District is deeply red. Collins was the earliest congressman to support Donald Trump for president. Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016 in the district by more than 24 percentage points.
“I think they (national Democrats) just look at the seat and think it’s too Republican leaning for them to win. So if McMurray is going to win, he’s basically going to have to do it on his own, which is probably why it’s an uphill battle for him,” said Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
Erie County GOP chair Nick Langworthy said while Collins “comes with complications with his legal situation” voters of the 27th are conservative and they’ll be motivated to get to the polls to defeat Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, which will help down-ballot Republicans.
“We’re going to turn out a massive Republican vote based on the governor’s race,” Langworthy said.
It would take a “drastic amount of money” for Democrats to flip the district and so far, “McMurray’s been kind of left for dead by the national Democrats,” Langworthy said.
Erie County Democratic Party Chairman Jeremy Zellner said the national Democrats just aren’t seeing the enthusiasm on the ground that McMurray has managed to generate despite his “bare bones campaign.”
Zellner predicted “there will be polls in the coming weeks showing this race is a toss-up and people will invest.”
