--- title: Democrats Panic To Raise Money Before 2014 Election: "All Hope Is Lost" description: Prospects are grim for Democrats in the 2014 House elections, but not quite as horribly, terribly, no-good, awfully grim as Democratic fundraisers would have their marks believe. canonical: https://time.com/2798069/democrats-induce-panic-to-raise-money-before-2014-election-all-hope-is-lost/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-30T14:27:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:08:20.185Z article:section: Politics og:title: Democrats Panic To Raise Money Before 2014 Election: "All Hope Is Lost" og:description: Prospects are grim for Democrats in the 2014 House elections, but not quite as horribly, terribly, no-good, awfully grim as Democratic fundraisers would have their marks believe. og:url: https://time.com/2798069/democrats-induce-panic-to-raise-money-before-2014-election-all-hope-is-lost/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71b9217b0bc15d64/69869570810bbb4a97c91f25/nancy-pelosi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi meets with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 29, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Democrats Panic To Raise Money Before 2014 Election: "All Hope Is Lost" twitter:description: Prospects are grim for Democrats in the 2014 House elections, but not quite as horribly, terribly, no-good, awfully grim as Democratic fundraisers would have their marks believe. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71b9217b0bc15d64/69869570810bbb4a97c91f25/nancy-pelosi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Democrats Induce Panic To Raise Money Before 2014 Election: "All Hope Is Lost" > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller May 30, 2014 2:27 PM UTC  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi meets with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 29, 2014. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi meets with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 29, 2014. Pablo Martinez Monsivais—AP by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller May 30, 2014 2:27 PM UTC The right has Benghazi, the Veterans Affairs scandal, [Dr. Ben Carson](http://time.com/23001/conservatives-inc/) and Obamacare. Democrats may have something even more powerful: liberal fear and self-loathing. As the end of the May fundraising month approaches, emails to supporters from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have gone from gentle concern to Defcon 1, apocalyptic panic. It’s a time-honored tactic to get supporters to open an email, and their wallets, but rarely has it been employed at this level of alarm. “All hope is lost,” reads the subject line of a fundraising email sent Friday morning. “Quick Reminder: the Kochs are beating us — BADLY,” the email begins. In 2012, one of the Obama campaign’s most successful emails was one from campaign officials warning “We could lose,” breaking through a barrier of invincibility that had developed among Obama supporters as the Republican Primary dragged on. For the DCCC the challenge may be the opposite. While it’s better funded than Republicans’ National Republican Congressional Committee, few believe Democrats have any chance of retaking the House of Representatives this fall given midterm turnout patterns and redistricting. So Democratic fundraisers have been doing their best to install a near suicidal sense of foreboding in the liberal ranks. And it’s working — already the DCCC has raised more money online than it did in the entire 2012 cycle. “With Congressional Republicans prioritizing their special interest backers over the American people, the stakes of this election are high for middle-class families,” DCCC spokesman Josh Schwerin said. “We rely on our grassroots supporters to keep pace with the millions of dollars we face from the likes of the Koch brothers.” Below is a sampling of the emails from the past week with their heart-stopping subject lines meant to drive open rates: All Hope is Lost  STAGGERING setback  HORRIFYING  We know…SORRY!  OBLITERATED  throw in the towel  CRUSHING blow  bad news  FURIOUS  DEVASTATING defeat  Painful Defeat  EVISCERATED  ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2798069/democrats-induce-panic-to-raise-money-before-2014-election-all-hope-is-lost/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2798069/democrats-induce-panic-to-raise-money-before-2014-election-all-hope-is-lost/"},"headline":"Democrats Induce Panic To Raise Money Before 2014 Election: \"All Hope Is Lost\"","datePublished":"2014-05-30T14:27:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:08:20.185Z","description":"Prospects are grim for Democrats in the 2014 House elections, but not quite as horribly, terribly, no-good, awfully grim as Democratic fundraisers would have their marks believe.","url":"https://time.com/2798069/democrats-induce-panic-to-raise-money-before-2014-election-all-hope-is-lost/","keywords":["2014 Election","democrats","Barack Obama","Joe Biden","Campaign Finance","Fundraising","nancy pelosi"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71b9217b0bc15d64/69869570810bbb4a97c91f25/nancy-pelosi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71b9217b0bc15d64/69869570810bbb4a97c91f25/nancy-pelosi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi meets with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 29, 2014.","caption":"House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi meets with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 29, 2014.","creditText":"Pablo Martinez Monsivais—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2014-election/","name":"2014 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2798069/democrats-induce-panic-to-raise-money-before-2014-election-all-hope-is-lost/","name":"Democrats Induce Panic To Raise Money Before 2014 Election: \"All Hope Is Lost\""}}]}] ```