The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is spending $2.5 million in North Carolina to wrest a seat from GOP Sen. Richard Burr. | AP Photo Bullish Senate Democrats target North Carolina, Missouri

The campaign arm for Senate Democrats is launching television ads in North Carolina and Missouri, a sign of their bullishness about winning seats in conservative territory, according to a source familiar with the ad buy.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is spending $2.5 million in North Carolina to wrest a seat from GOP Sen. Richard Burr and $1.5 million to knock off Republican Sen. Roy Blunt. The cash infusion for television and possibly digital ads comes from the DSCC's independent expenditure unit.


The move marks a significant expansion of the Democratic campaign to take back the Senate, which Republicans now control with 54 seats to Democrats' 46. Until now, the party had been concentrating on traditional battlegrounds like Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Hampshire and Nevada. Republicans are defending 24 seats, many in blue and purple states, compared with just 10 for Democrats.

The chess match over the Senate map has shifted significantly in recent days. Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portman has appeared increasingly safe to hold his seat against Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, forcing the DSCC and Senate Majority PAC to scale back ad buys there and shift their strategy to more winnable races. Meanwhile, Republicans have become increasingly concerned about North Carolina: Two weeks ago, Senate Leadership Fund announced it would spend $8.1 million to defend Burr with TV ads starting Tuesday.



As part of the shift in advertising, Democrats are also scaling back their advertising in Florida by $700,000 during the last week of September, from about $1 million to $300,000. While GOP Sen. Marco Rubio holds an edge there over Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, Democrats said that Senate Majority PAC will provide more than adequate air cover for Murphy that week and still believe the race is winnable.

Simultaneously, Democrats have been feeling better about North Carolina, where Donald Trump is trailing Hillary Clinton and Burr is running what GOP operatives believe is a lackluster campaign with low visibility in the state. Burr routinely leads in polls over Democratic candidate Deborah Ross, but Democratic Party leaders believe the state is fertile territory to pick up one of the minimum four seats needed to reclaim the majority. Republican groups just announced a massive ad buy in North Carolina to aid Burr.

Missouri is a tougher challenge for Democrats, though party operatives are bullish on their candidate, Jason Kander, and believe his attacks on longtime Washington hand Blunt as a consummate insider could resonate.

