A Democratic super PAC spent over $2 million attacking Republican incumbents in deep-red Trump districts days before the election, claiming the House is about to flip.
House Majority PAC put $2.2 million into television ads against Rep. Brad Finstad in Minnesota’s first district and another $380,000 against Rep. Victoria Spartz in Indiana’s fifth, the Daily Caller reported after Punchbowl first flagged the buys.
President Donald Trump carried Finstad’s seat by 12 points and Spartz’s by 17. Those are not swing districts on paper. Democrats are still writing seven-figure checks there with eight days left on the clock.
House Majority PAC President Mike Smith framed the late spending as map expansion, not defense.
"With eight days until Election Day, Democrats continue to expand the map and push Republicans further and further on defense,"
Smith added a bolder forecast:
"Next week, Democrats will take back the House, and Hakeem Jeffries will be elected the next Speaker."
That is the sales pitch. The money trail shows Democrats testing whether deep-red territory can be bought in the final stretch.
In Minnesota’s first district, a KAAL-TV/SurveyUSA poll found Democratic candidate Jake Johnson leading Finstad by two points. House Majority PAC answered with the $2.2 million television package.
Finstad holds a seat Trump won comfortably. The poll and the ad buy now put him on defense inside that same district.
Spartz drew the smaller hit, $380,000, yet the race rating still moved. Cook Political Report shifted Indiana’s fifth from “Solid Republican” to “Likely Republican.” Spartz was described as leading Democratic state Sen. J.D. Ford even as the rating softened.
An embedded announcement tracked by Patrick Svitek put the combined late television total at $2.54 million against the two Republicans. The separate figures for Finstad and Spartz add to the same late-cycle push into Trump country.
Cook Political Report moved 19 House races toward Democrats on Friday. Four Republican-held seats flipped in the ratings from “Toss Up” to “Lean Democratic”: Rep. Juan Ciscomani in Arizona, Rep. Gabe Evans in Colorado, Rep. Jen Kiggans in Virginia, and Rep. Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin.
Two more districts left the toss-up column for “leaning Democratic.” Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez’s Texas 34th was one. North Carolina’s 11th was the other after Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards said he would not seek reelection once investigators concluded he engaged in inappropriate conduct.
Those rating changes land in the same week Democrats are wiring money into seats Trump won by double digits. The pattern is clear: stretch the map, force Republicans to spend, and hope a few deep-red names crack.
House Republicans’ top super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, cut $6 million from Florida’s 25th district and moved $9 million into districts already held by Republicans. Florida’s 25th had been redrawn to benefit Republicans, yet the PAC still pulled cash out.
Trump’s political operation, No Stepping Back PAC, has put more than $25 million into House races. That includes $6.3 million in the same Florida 25th district. The group also slashed $3 million from Texas’ 28th, a seat redrawn to help Republicans oust Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar. Trump won that Texas district by seven points in 2024.
Republican Senate spending has been described as unprecedented in Texas, Kansas, and Iowa, while money was cut in North Carolina and Georgia. The House picture is messier: some safe-looking lines still draw Democratic television, and some redrawn Republican targets see outside cash pulled back.
Minnesota’s first and Indiana’s fifth were not supposed to require seven-figure rescue ads. Trump’s double-digit margins in both made them look settled. House Majority PAC’s Monday television spending treats them as open contests anyway.
Smith’s statement does not hide the strategy. Expand the map. Push Republicans onto defense. Promise a Democratic House and a Speaker Jeffries gavel by next week.
Cook’s Friday wave of 19 shifts toward Democrats gives that talk a ratings backdrop. Four GOP incumbents now sit in “Lean Democratic” columns that were toss-ups days earlier. Gonzalez’s South Texas seat and the open North Carolina 11th moved the same direction.
None of that changes the raw geography of the Finstad and Spartz buys. Twelve points and 17 points for Trump are the baselines Democrats are trying to erase with television in the final eight days.
Voters in those districts already delivered clear presidential margins. Democratic outside money is now asking them to split their tickets under a last-minute ad barrage, while Republican PACs reshuffle millions across Florida, Texas, and other held ground.
When party committees spend like battlegrounds in places Trump won by double digits, they are not projecting strength, they are testing whether enough voters can be peeled away from a verdict already rendered.
