Clinton super PAC rakes in $24M as it looks to expand map

A pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC had its best fundraising month to date, raising $24.6 million in September, allowing the group to keep pushing to expand the map for Democrats in 2016.

{mosads}Priorities USA has already committed more than $150 million on advertising to defeat Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee. It’s the best-funded and most sophisticated outside spending group on either side of presidential politics, and it now boasts such deep pockets that it’s turning its attention down the ballot.

“Nothing’s off the table,” spokesman Justin Barasky told The Hill in a telephone interview on Thursday. “We’re taking a look to see where we can make the most difference and help surround Hillary in Washington with Democrats who can help move the country forward.”

With Trump struggling in recent polls, the pro-Clinton super PAC has already stopped advertising for her in New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. The group is now switching its multimillion-dollar campaigns in those states to attack ads against incumbent Republican Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) and Pat Toomey (Pa.). 

In the anti-Ayotte ad, titled “No Principles,” Priorities USA hits her for being slow to outright condemn Trump while he’s said outrageous things about women and mocked a disabled reporter. 

Democrats need to win five Senate seats to claim control over the upper chamber, or four seats if Clinton wins the presidency, as her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), would be the tiebreaker vote.

Priorities is also considering contributing to House races, though no decisions have been made yet, according to Barasky.

The group is also weighing further expanding the map at the presidential level. The Priorities strategists have seen Trump’s growing vulnerabilities in red-state polls, and the group recently decided to advertise in Georgia, a traditionally Republican state. Arizona may be next, though nothing is official.

Guy Cecil, the co-chair of the super PAC, tweeted on Oct. 18.: “This is just the beginning of expanding the map & supporting Dems. More to come soon.” 

Priorities USA entered October with more than $20 million in the bank. The group remains on air backing Clinton, the Democratic nominee, in the battlegrounds of Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada.

But the group will leave Colorado by the end of the week, Barasky said. Clinton leads Trump by 8 points, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of Colorado polls.

“We have no immediate plans for new spending,” Barasky said, “but we’re constantly assessing the map and looking for opportunities to help Hillary and help Democrats.”