Kochs won’t help GOP Senate hopeful in S.D.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The conservative Koch brothers’ network declared Monday that it will not help elect the Republican Senate candidate in North Dakota, turning its back on the GOP in a marquee election — at least for now — after determining that the Republican challenger is no better than the Democratic incumbent.
The decision sends a strong message to Republican officials across the country that there may be real consequences for those unwilling to oppose the spending explosion and protectionist trade policies embraced by the Trump White House in recent weeks. And little more than three months before Election Day, it leaves a top-tier Republican Senate campaign without the assistance of one of the conservative movement’s most powerful allies as their party fights to maintain control of Congress.
“For those who stand in the way, we don’t pull any punches, regardless of party,” Tim Phillips, who leads the Kochs’ political arm, told hundreds of donors while outlining their midterm election strategy on the final day of a three-day private Rocky Mountain retreat.
The announcement marks a new chapter in the strained relationship between the Trump administration and the expanding conservative network created by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, who refused to endorse the Republican president in 2016.
Trump has effectively taken over the modern-day Republican Party on almost every level, even after ignoring long-held conservative beliefs on government spending, free trade and foreign policy. The billionaire Kochs and their nationwide army of conservative activists, however, are not giving in.
That’s not to say they’re punishing every Trump loyalist in 2018.
The Kochs’ political arm, Americans for Prosperity, still plans to focus its resources on helping Republican Senate candidates in Tennessee, Florida and Wisconsin. It remains unclear how hard the group will work to defeat vulnerable Senate Democrats in West Virginia, Missouri and Montana.
The midterm strategy could change in the coming weeks, but the Kochs currently plan to ignore North Dakota’s high-profile Senate contest, where threeterm Republican congressman Kevin Cramer is trying to unseat Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp. She’s considered among the most vulnerable Senate Democrats in the nation.
“He’s not leading on the issues this country needs leadership most right now,” Phillips said of Cramer, specifically citing spending and trade.
Ahead of the announcement, Charles Koch told reporters that he cared little for party affiliation and regretted supporting some Republicans in the past who only paid lip service to conservative principles.
Network leaders over the weekend repeatedly lashed out at the Republican-backed $1.3 trillion spending bill adopted in March, which represented the largest government spending plan in history.