RNC rejects House GOP pleas for cash
WASHINGTON — Senior House Republicans are asking the deep-pocketed Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign to provide financial help as Democrats vastly outraise the GOP, but top campaign officials are so far declining to commit.
In a statement, the RNC said no decision has been made.
“We have a great working relationship with our sister committees,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said. “Our priority is President Trump’s reelection, along with winning back the House and holding the Senate. Transfer requests like these are standard every cycle and final decisions typically aren’t made until after Labor Day. It is totally false to say that anyone is holding up a decision on a transfer commitment.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has asked Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, to make a financial commitment to the House GOP, according to several officials familiar with the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely describe private conversations.
But Kushner, who oversees such decisions and has a greater say than McDaniel, has refused thus far, the officials say.
McCarthy declined to comment about his request.
Trump has been raking in unprecedented amounts of cash. The president’s fundraising committees and the RNC entered July with $295 million on hand, which is more than twice the $144 million that former President Barack Obama had for his reelection at the same point in 2012.
The rejection has upset some Republicans, many of whom believe the president has a duty to help the party. Those familiar with the dispute, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity, blame Kushner for failing to understand the importance of unity and working together.
House Democrats, meanwhile, have capitalized on Trump’s slipping approval ratings to go on offense, expanding the election map deeper into long-held Republican territory as they seek to increase the size of their majority.
House Republicans are working to win back a large number of the 31 Democratic seats in districts Trump carried in 2016, but now the National Republican Congressional Committee’s top Democratic targets are sitting on million-dollar accounts, making them difficult to unseat.
In fact, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s 42 most-vulnerable frontline members have an average 5-to-1 cash advantage over their GOP opponents. Additionally, 30 Democratic challengers outraised their Republican rivals in the second quarter of 2020, putting the party in a prime position to increase their ranks in the House.
“Washington Republicans have learned the hard way that encouraging people to drink bleach doesn’t make for the most effective fundraising pitch,” said Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, referring to Trump’s claim about a treatment for covid-19.
“House Democrats have outworked, out-hustled and outraised Republicans all cycle long. Our fundraising advantage is the firewall protecting our majority,” she said.
The Democratic campaign committee has $94 million on hand while the GOP has $61 million — a $33 million cash advantage 100 days before the election.
Now more than ever, Republicans say, they need the help of Trump and the RNC.
“They should try to get as much money as they can — as much as possible,” said outgoing Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who said the money shortage has made him glad he’s retiring.
Democrats, King added, are getting a major boost from the online fundraising platform Act Blue, which helped them win the House in 2018. Republicans, meanwhile, are seeing some of their longtime business donors hold back because of pandemic-triggered economic woes.
Trump campaign and RNC officials have recently met with Republican aides from the Senate and the House to outline their ground-game operation, and vowed to help with infrastructure and volunteers.
“We’re worried — even the [House Republicans] who are doing well,” said one senior Republican lawmaker who suddenly finds himself in a competitive race and spoke on the condition of anonymity. “The Democrats are just doing so well.”