The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee hopes to get former Sen. Evan Bayh across the finish line in Indiana. | Getty Senate Democrats go big in red states The party is devoting millions to competitive Senate races in North Carolina and Missouri, but scales back in Ohio and Florida.

With the battle for the Senate tighter than ever, Senate Democrats are infusing millions of dollars more in conservative-leaning states and pulling back further from the traditional battlegrounds of Ohio and Florida, an official familiar with the moves told POLITICO on Friday.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is bolstering its ad campaign in North Carolina, Missouri and Indiana this fall as it seeks to knock off two incumbents and get former Sen. Evan Bayh across the finish line in Indiana. The committee is also scaling back significantly its effort to defeat GOP Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Marco Rubio of Florida, ceding ground in those expensive states.


The DSCC is investing $4.2 million more in North Carolina and $2 million in Missouri, giving the party significant footholds in its efforts to oust Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the party official said. Democrats have now invested $6.7 million in North Carolina and $3.5 million in Missouri in the past week, a major play in two states that lean Republican.

Officials will also spend $2.5 million to help prop up Bayh, whose lead against Rep. Todd Young (R-Ind.) has been fading.

The new tactics represent a significant boost of confidence in Deborah Ross, a relatively obscure former North Carolina state legislator, and Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, whose striking gun control ad this week showing him assembling a rifle while blindfolded wowed political insiders in both parties. But as encouraging as that news is for those two upstarts, it's also a blunt expression of the party's dimming hopes in Ohio and, to a lesser extent, Florida.

“As we've said from the very beginning, spending levels would be adjusted across the map. North Carolina and Missouri are both increasingly competitive races where we have put Republican incumbents on defense in the fights of their lives. The Ohio and Florida races are both still good turf for Democrats and we continue to make targeted investments in those states,” said the Democratic Party official.

Democratic officials are slashing ad buys significantly in the pair of perennial battleground states, most glaringly in Ohio, where former Gov. Ted Strickland is getting consistently crushed by Portman in the polls. Democrats are now running ads just the last two weeks of the election in Ohio, scaling back their reservations by roughly half from the initial $10 million in planned ad buys.

Democrats still feel that Florida is winnable but are coming to terms with their limited resources — and relying on Senate Majority PAC, the outside group aligned with Democratic leadership, to do much of the heavy lifting. The DSCC has cut all but the last three weeks of advertisements in Florida, leaving $6 million on the board of the initial $10 million reservation. Senate Majority PAC has spent $1.5 million so far in the Sunshine State and has $10 million more reserved there. The conservative Senate Leadership Fund has nearly $11 million in reservations to aid Rubio.

Democratic campaign officials are citing a new internal poll by Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.) showing him down just 2 points to Rubio as evidence that the race is still competitive. There is some dissension within the party about how winnable Florida is, but there is agreement that Missouri and North Carolina are cheaper and that Blunt and Burr are vulnerable.

Kander, an Army National Guard veteran, enjoyed his first polling lead this week in Missouri, according to an Emerson poll that had him up 42-40 over Blunt, although Blunt still enjoys a 3-point lead in the RealClearPolitics polling average. Burr enjoys a similar lead, though Ross has led in individual public polls twice over the past two months. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has not spent money in those states yet, though the Senate Leadership Fund is spending $2.5 million in Missouri and $8.1 million in North Carolina.

Bayh changed the Senate dynamic significantly when he decided to seek his old seat. Bayh still enjoys a lead of about 5 points, but he has been hurt by GOP attacks on him as a Washington insider and an occasional resident of the state. The DSCC's $2.5 million investment comes as Republicans step up the air wars there, with the NRSC spending nearly $1 million against Bayh in August and Senate Leadership Fund planning to spend another $4 million.

Scott Bland contributed to this report.