Pence quietly courts big donors, execs
Private dinners aim to win support for Republican agenda.
WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence has been courting scores of the country’s most influential donors, corporate executives and conservative political leaders over the past several months in a series of private gatherings and one-on-one conversations.
The centerpiece of the effort is a string of dinners held every few weeks at the vice president’s official residence on the grounds of the Naval Observatory in Washington. Pence and his wife, Karen, have presided over at least four such soirees, and more are in the works. Each has drawn roughly 30 to 40 guests, including a mix of wealthy donors such as Chicago hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin and brokerage firm founder Charles Schwab, as well as Republican fundraisers and executives from companies like Dow Chemical and military contractor United Technologies.
The guests and their families collectively donated or helped raise millions of dollars to support the Trump-Pence ticket in 2016, and some are viewed in Republican finance circles as likely supporters for two new groups created to advocate for President Donald Trump, Pence, their legislative agenda and congressional allies. The dinner guest lists were curated in part by two of Pence’s closest advisers, who have also played important roles in starting the new political groups, America First Policies and America First Action. Pence has appeared at recent events outside his official residence with prospective donors to the groups.
The off-site events and dinners at Pence’s residence underscore the vice president’s outreach to donors for an administration led by a president who dislikes courting contributors, who often expect personal attention in exchange for their support. Pence’s activities have fueled speculation among Republican insiders that he is laying the foundation for his own political future, independent from Trump.
Pence’s aides point out that he also has dinners at the residence for groups other than donors, including members of Congress, world leaders, military families, civic leaders and friends. They cast the donor dinners as an effort to build support for the administration’s agenda, not for Pence personally.
“Mike Pence is the ultimate team player and works every day to help the president succeed,” said Robert Grand, an Indianapolis lawyer who helped raise money for Pence’s campaigns in Indiana for Congress and for governor. Grand attended a dinner at the vice president’s residence in June. “There were a lot of folks who, if you were vice president, you would want to meet,” Grand said. “Corporate executives, other government leaders, people from past administrations, not just donors.”
He added that “any administration, past and present, has an interest in getting to know folks. If you’re an incumbent president and vice president, then that’s part of what you do.”
Pence’s office declined to release the lists of guests invited to the dinners, which have not appeared on schedules released by the vice president’s office to the media. Marc Lotter, Pence’s press secretary, called the dinners “private” and said that the vice president had not held any political fundraisers at his residence, which would be complicated by a law barring the solicitation of political contributions in government buildings.
Pence’s willingness to use his residence to host wealthy donors has been reassuring to Republican finance and political operatives, who worry that their congressional candidates could be severely hampered if they faced financial shortfalls during 2018 midterm elections, when Trump’s unpopularity is expected to create strong headwinds.
The dinners are “a smart way for Vice President Pence and his team to recognize major supporters of his and the president’s agenda, and build resources that are going to be necessary for the upcoming battles,” said Charles Spies, a leading Republican election lawyer.
Pence, who came to Trump’s ticket with a reputation as an enthusiastic cultivator of wealthy patrons, has worked to win over donors who clashed with Trump during the campaign, among them billionaire industrialist Charles Koch. Pence spent nearly an hour last month with Koch in a private meeting at a Colorado Springs hotel, where the vice president praised Trump for his leadership in pushing to fulfill campaign promises and in selecting strong Cabinet nominees, according to James Davis, an executive at a Koch-backed group who attended the meeting.
Associates say Pence has discussed with the president the importance of encouraging major donors to support America First Policies. Pence signaled his own support for the group by appearing with his wife at a reception in Washington this spring for prospective donors to America First Policies that was hosted by a fundraising consultant, Jeff Miller.
The group was founded soon after Trump’s inauguration by political operatives outside the administration, including two close advisers to Pence — Nick Ayers and Marty Obst — who helped arrange the Naval Observatory dinners and attended some of them.
In March, Obst, who was a top fundraiser for Trump’s campaign and inauguration, told Politico that America First Policies had received $25 million in commitments and had collected more than half that money. In recent weeks, America First Policies has spent money on one advertising campaign questioning the national security bona fides of the Democratic nominee in a special election for a Georgia congressional seat, and another chastising Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., for his opposition to the Senate health care bill that would supplant the Affordable Care Act.
While Ayers has stepped away from America First Policies and related groups in recent days as he prepares to take a position as Pence’s new chief of staff, the team behind the political groups is ramping up its efforts.
In May, Obst and Ayers founded Great America Committee, a political action committee to fund Pence’s political operation — an unusual step for a sitting vice president. Typically, vice presidents rely on their respective party committees for such functions.
America First Policies, a nonprofit required to spend the majority of its money on costs unrelated to partisan political campaigns, has in the meantime spun off a super PAC called America First Action that will have more legal flexibility to directly advocate for the election of Trump’s allies and the defeat of his opponents. As a super PAC, America First Action is required to publicly disclose its donors, but America First Policies is not.
Katie Walsh, a senior adviser to America First Policies who has attended some of Pence’s dinners, said the group did not use the gatherings to prospect for donations.
Although Walsh said that some attendees “happen to support” groups backing the administration, “a lot of those folks have never given to anything related to Trump or Pence, and are leaders of businesses and industries that have worked, and continue to work, with the administration to get things done.”