Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.

With three weeks to go until the midterms, Democratic campaign groups and super PACs are speaking with one voice: They have the right environment. They have the right message. They have the right candidates.

They just need more money. ASAP.

“Given the Republican cash advantage, we now find ourselves in a situation where we could be leaving winnable races on the table,” Julie Merz, executive director of House Democrats’ campaign arm, wrote in an Oct. 9 memo, warning that a dozen or so opportunities—those only reachable because of the anti-GOP environment—might be missed without an infusion of cash. The memo encouraged donors to cough up another $17 million over the next two weeks. House Democrats’ main super PAC, House Majority PAC, put its request at $38.5 million. On the Senate side, the main Democratic super PAC, Senate Majority PAC, warned that “Republican-aligned outside groups have built a financial advantage neither party has had before, large enough to bury our many advantages under a paid media blitz before November.”

And Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has put the cash disadvantage front and center in his messaging: “With just three weeks until Election Day, the battle for control of the Senate comes down to one defining question,” Chuck Schumer wrote in a letter to his colleagues on Monday. “Will the unprecedented tsunami of Republican money defeat the massive Democratic advantage in candidates, policies, and political climate?”

“Unprecedented tsunami” isn’t hyperbole. While it’s hard to get an exact number on the cash advantage, the Associated Press estimates that the “$1 billion that Republicans have amassed compares with roughly $579 million held by a comparable collection of major Democratic groups.” A Washington Post analysis of the top 50 donors this cycle shows Republicans having raised $1.07 billion from the group relative to Democrats’ $454 million.

These numbers don’t even account for third-quarter sums that have yet to be disclosed. Elon Musk, as the New York Times first reported, gave a stunning $276 million to GOP groups and super PACs in the third quarter, raising his total giving for the cycle to $366 million. The $158 million alone he gave to Senate Republicans’ top super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, covers the group’s........

© Slate