Democrats rail against PACs — but PACs may help them win in 2018

Danny O'Connor.
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Criticizing "dark money" super PACs is a favorite talking point for many Democratic candidates, but super PACs are playing an increasingly important role in the Democratic Party, Politico reports.

In the last few years, PACs have taken over responsibility for large-scale campaign spending previously done by Democratic leadership, including television ad buys, digital advertising, and get out the vote efforts. Instead of going dormant in between presidential election cycles, Democratic super PACs are becoming full-time operations, staying open through midterms and off-years in an attempt to reach parity with the other side of the aisle, where Democrats were outspent 20-to-1 on online ads in 2016.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.