Democrats wasted no time Monday using former President Donald Trump’s victory in the Iowa caucus to scare their party’s voters into donating money for the general election.
Trump won Iowa with 51 percent of the vote, leading two candidates in the race to drop out.
Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson each suspended their campaigns after failing to gain traction with voters.
The Republican primary is now a three-person race between Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
The coming weeks will tell us more about the viability of the DeSantis and Haley campaigns.
But according to a fundraising email that was sent out before all the votes were counted in Iowa on Monday, Democrats view Trump’s nomination as inevitable.
Reporter Ashley Zavala with Sacramento’s KCRA-TV shared a fundraising email she received on the social media platform X from California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In the email, Newsom expressed his worry that Trump would go on to win the general election in November — a prospect he called “terrifying.”
Will Gavin Newsom ever run for president?
“A short while ago, Donald Trump won the Iowa Caucus. He is now one step closer to becoming the Republican nominee and having a chance to return to the White House. Terrifying,” Newsom wrote as he asked her for a donation of $3.
The email, which was presumably sent to countless Democratic Party voters, also asked them to recall their emotions in 2016 when Trump defeated then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Gavin Newsom’s campaign sends fundraising email for the DNC, calling Trump’s Iowa win “terrifying” pic.twitter.com/o6ChQVQUvk
— Ashley Zavala (@ZavalaA) January 16, 2024
“I want you to think about the way you felt the morning after Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016? Do you remember it?” Newsom asked in the fundraising email.
He continued, “Now think about the relief you felt when it was clear Joe Biden won in 2020.”
Newsom went on to write that the party needs every dollar it can get its hands on to defeat Trump in November.
“We all have a role to play in making sure we are feeling that relief once again,” the governor wrote. “And a fully-funded Democratic National Committee is essential for victory in 2024.”
Newsom’s email on behalf of the Democratic National Committee comes as President Joe Biden’s approval rating has seemingly bottomed out.
A poll from ABC News/Ipsos released last week found that Biden’s current approval rating sits at 33 percent.
Meanwhile, 58 percent of the poll respondents said they disapproved of Biden’s job performance.
Among the country’s largest voting bloc — independent voters — Biden’s approval rating sat at only 28 percent, ABC News/Ipsos found.
ABC News/Ipsos surveyed 2,228 American adults from Jan. 4-8. The poll reported a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points.
