GOP cash flow for Senate in peril

Big-business backlash may hurt fundraising

WASHINGTON — Republicans are worried that a corporate backlash stirred by the deadly Capitol insurrection could crimp a vital stream of campaign cash, complicating the party’s prospects of retaking the Senate in the next election.

The GOP already faces a difficult Senate map in 2022, when 14 Democratic-held seats and 20 Republican ones will be on the ballot. That includes at least two open seats that Republicans will be defending because of the retirements of GOP Sens. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Richard Burr of North Carolina.

But some in the party say the problem may be bigger than the map. Eight Republican senators voted to reject electoral votes for President-elect Joe Biden, even after the ransacking of the Capitol by a mob of Donald Trump supporters who were exhorted by the president to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s victory. Five people died in the mayhem, including a Capitol Police officer.

Recriminations were swift, with more than a dozen corporate giants — including AT&T, Nike, Comcast, Dow, Marriott, Walmart and Verizon — pledging to withhold donations to

Republican lawmakers who voted to reject the outcome of the election in Arizona or Pennsylvania.

One of those lawmakers, Florida Sen. Rick Scott, is the new chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a post that makes him the public face of the Senate Republican fundraising efforts.

“That’s the crux of the issue: Is this a storm that will blow over, or is … challenging (Biden’s) Electoral College certification a scarlet ‘A’?” said Republican donor Dan Eberhart, who has contributed at least $115,000 to Senate Republican

efforts in recent years.

The lost contributions aren’t disastrous on their own. Political action committees controlled by corporations and industry groups are limited to giving $5,000 to a candidate per year, a sliver of the typical fundraising haul for most Senate candidates.

But two senior Republican strategists involved in Senate races say the cumulative effect of the companies’ decisions could have a bigger impact.

And with Scott at the helm of the NRSC, that could affect the committee’s cash flow, they said.

J. Scott Applewhite The Associated Press Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., walks to the House chamber Jan. 6 to challenge the results of the presidential election in Pennsylvania. The response by corporate America in the wake of the Capitol riot could hamper the GOP efforts to retake the Senate.