Joy-Ann Reid Says Democrats Left Southern Seats on the Table

Joy-Ann Reid spent the night after Democrats' midterm sweep arguing that the wave should have been bigger, and she blamed her own party's campaign machinery for the shortfall.

On Wednesday's live edition of The Joy Reid Show, the former MSNBC host said national Democrats starved Southern candidates who lost or are trailing by narrow margins. She named Jamie Davis in Louisiana, Scott Colom in Mississippi, Angie Nixon in Florida, Charles Booker in Kentucky, Chris Jones in Arkansas and Justin J. Pearson in Tennessee, then said: "the party actually left votes on the table as that blue tsunami could have been even bigger."

She said this while celebrating. Reid opened the show counting a Senate majority of at least 54 seats and at least 236 House seats. As of Wednesday, Democrats led by 8.9 points on the generic congressional ballot in PolitiKool's polling average.

Joy-Ann Reid Faults the DSCC and Chuck Schumer

"If the establishment Democrats had embraced these candidates early on and flooded them with money, we're talking about narrow margins," Reid said. "Angie Nixon had very little money and still almost won that race. And so we can't have Democrats almost winning races because they may not perfectly align with the leadership in Washington."

She said party strategists may have "looked at the Cook Political Report and the algorithm on Cook Political Report said this is an unwinnable state, so we'll just back off."

Later in the show, Reid turned on New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Gillibrand "should not be bragging about the Senate," Reid said. "They didn't fund the Troy Jacksons. They didn't fund the Angie Nixons. They left multiple seats on the table." Jackson, the former logger who unseated Susan Collins in Maine, was projected to win.

Then she pointed to the leadership race: "there's no debt owed to the DSCC or to Chuck Schumer."

Jamie Davis Says He Got No National Money

Reid's sharpest example was Louisiana. She said Davis, a farmer, came within about 25,000 votes out of roughly 1.466 million cast against Republican Representative Julia Letlow.

On the show, Davis said he got "no money from the National Democratic Party, no money from the DSCC." On that point, the record backs him. In mid-October, WAFB reported that the national party "has not spent any money on Davis' campaign." Davis told Reid his campaign raised "I think $7 million or so." By WAFB's October count, he had raised $4 million. Letlow had raised nearly $7 million, including about $4 million moved over from her House campaign account.

Gary Chambers Jr., a Louisiana activist and former Senate candidate, went further: "I think the National Party has failed Louisiana once again." He contrasted the Southern races with Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff's reelection campaign: "He had a hundred million dollars."

Heading into the vote, Letlow led by 2.5 points in PolitiKool's Louisiana average.

Angie Nixon's Fundraising Was Larger Than Reid Suggested

Reid and her guests did not agree on Nixon's money. Reid said Nixon had "very little money." Chambers put it at "16 million dollars raised." Federal Election Commission filings show Nixon's campaign took in $11.3 million through October 14. About $218,000 of that came from committees, and the rest came almost entirely from individual donors. Reid said Nixon lost to Republican Senator Ashley Moody by about 1.9 points. Moody had led by 6.3 points in PolitiKool's Florida average.

Mississippi does not fit Reid's argument as cleanly. On October 20, Senate Majority PAC announced it was putting $1.2 million into a TV ad for Colom, with two weeks left in the race. In the same report, Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock said: "I worry, to be very honest, that Democrats are missing a real opportunity to invest in a serious and sustained way in the South." Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith had led by 6.2 points in PolitiKool's Mississippi average.

What Happens Next

Three of the races Reid named were still uncalled when she spoke: Colom's Senate race, Jones' challenge to Republican Representative French Hill in Arkansas, and Pearson's bid for a redrawn Tennessee district. Reid said Colom was ahead 49 percent to 48.9 percent as votes came in. She said the three races were "all within one point, one percentage point. And they're so close that if they don't prevail, it's almost shameful."

Pearson said he trailed by "about a 2000 vote divide." He told Reid that "early money is like yeast, it makes a big difference to be able to have the resources sooner."

Davis has not conceded. He said he would meet with consultants about whether a contest is worth pursuing.