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Miracles can happen or so say House Democrats longing to win majority control of the chamber in November.

They need a net gain of 17 seats to seize the speakers gavel, which would require winning the lions share of roughly two dozen Republican-held seats targeted by Democrats this year most of them in GOP-leaning districts.

Pundits and pollsters give Democrats virtually no chance of pulling it off, but the party faithful nevertheless hang on to hope.

I am a believer, said Rep. James P. McGovern of Massachusetts, one of the most liberal Democrats in Congress.

I read regularly all the political pundits and the polls showing whos up and whos down on all the news shows. But I think people are not happy with the way this place is being run and, on the issues, I think people agree with us. If we get our message out and get the vote out, we win, he said.

Indeed, Americans overwhelmingly dislike what is happening on Capitol Hill. A Fox News poll last week found that 79 percent of those surveyed disapproved of Congress. Another recent poll showed that for the first time, a majority of voters 51 percent want to oust their own representatives.

House Republicans dismiss any suggestion that their majority is in danger and expect to expand their edge by as many as 10 seats.

Republicans also have high hopes of capturing the Senate as well. The party has an excellent shot of winning the net six seats needed for complete control of Congress.

Much of the difficulty facing House Democrats is that the path to midterm success runs predominantly through Republican-leaning districts. Republicans now have a 233-199 edge in the House, with three seats vacant.

Of the 24 Republican seats identified as in play by the Rothenberg Political Report, just nine are in districts that backed President Obama in the 2012 election. Winning in those districts could put Democrats more than halfway toward their goal.

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House Democrats hold out hope to win majority control of chamber in election

Democrats love to cast Republicans as the party of big money, beholden to the out-of-touch billionaires bankrolling their campaigns.

But new numbers tell a very different story one in which Democrats are actually raising more big money than their adversaries.

Among the groups reporting the biggest political ad spending, the 15 top Democrat-aligned committees have outraised the 15 top Republican ones $453 million to $289 million in the 2014 cycle, according to a POLITICO analysis of the most recent Federal Election Commission reports, including those filed over the weekend which cover through the end of last month.

The analysis shows the fundraising edge widening in August, when the Democratic groups pulled in more than twice as much as their GOP counterparts $51 million to $21 million. Thats thanks to a spike in massive checks from increasingly energized labor unions and liberal billionaires like Tom Steyer and Fred Eychaner.

(POLITICO's 2014 race ratings)

So, even as Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are working methodically to turn conservative megadonors like the big-giving conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch into the boogeymen of 2014, the party itself is increasingly relying on its deepest pockets as the best chance of staving off a midterm wipeout forecast by oddsmakers.

For example, Steyer, a retired San Francisco hedge fund billionaire, on Aug. 15 stroked a $15 million check to his own NextGen Climate Action super PAC that single-handedly exceeded the combined monthly total raised by the two GOP congressional campaign committees. And his political lieutenant, Chris Lehane, hinted that Steyer, one of the biggest individual donors of 2014, may give more to his super PAC than his $50 million pledge, which Lehane said should not be seen as a ceiling. Steyers spending and that of other Democratic billionaires has helped fuel an advertising gap favoring the partys candidates in key races across the country.

The surprising financial advantage, which has some leading Republicans nervous, is a state of affairs that would have been unthinkable during the 2010 midterms or even the 2012 election. Democrats were badly beaten in those cycles outside-spending derbies by rich conservatives.

(See more from POLITICO's Polling Center)

Democratic megadonors and operatives attribute their big-money surge to a realization that they couldnt compete without embracing the new environment, but they assert its inaccurate to suggest theyre ahead.

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Dems relying on big donors to win

Rachel Maddow - Polls show shift favoring Democrats on Senate
Sept 16, 2014 Rachel Maddow reports on updated Senate predictions from Nate Silver, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Princeton #39;s Sam Wang showing...

By: Licentiathe8th

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Rachel Maddow - Polls show shift favoring Democrats on Senate - Video

Democrats show post-primary unity
Gina Raimondo is joined by two of her former rivals for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination at a campaign event designed to display party unity.

By: NBC 10 WJAR

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Democrats show post-primary unity - Video

By Kevin Liptak, CNN

updated 3:07 PM EDT, Fri September 19, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Washington (CNN) -- Democrats were making an election-year pitch to women on Friday, mindful of their past advantage among the voting bloc and hoping to convince enough women to cast ballots for their candidates in November's mid-term contests.

Without strong turnout and support from women, Democrats stand little chance of keeping control of the Senate -- the party's top priority this year.

The biggest draw at the Democrats' Women's Leadership Forum in Washington was Hillary Clinton, their leading 2016 potential presidential contender and, in the minds of some Democrats, a potential boost to mid-term candidates. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden also were on the event's roster.

"We have fought for families, for moms and dads and kids and the values that hold us all together," Clinton said during her midday speech, which was warmly received by the room of party activists.

Women have provided Democrats a boost in recent elections, including in 2012, when 55% voted for Obama in that year's presidential contest. But as Obama's poll numbers have slid, so, too, has his support among women.

The most recent CNN survey of Obama's popularity showed 55% of women disapproved of how Obama is handling his job -- the same percentage that voted for him in 2012. That disapproval rate was on par with the figure for men.

On pressing issues including terrorism, the economy and Ukraine, more women than men disapprove of how Obama's doing his job.

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Democrats make new pitch for women votes