Although the president is constitutionally barred from running again, he began raising money soon after winning a second term, and he regularly holds fundraisers at his resort properties where tickets cost $1 million per person.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump reshaped this year’s U.S. Senate map by bypassing several Republican incumbents and promoting loyalists to replace them. Now the question is whether he will put his money where his mouth is.
With four months until the November election, it’s still unclear how much MAGA Inc., the nation’s largest political war chest with $382 million in the bank as of last month, plans to spend on the primary races. The silence has continued even as Senate Republican leaders have urged Trump’s team, both privately and publicly, to pick up the tab on the president’s decisions.
Front and center is Texas, where Trump successfully approved Conservative firebrand Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn, a choice some Republicans lament, has turned a safe election into a blowout that will divert resources from other battlegrounds. Democratic candidate James Talarico, a state lawmaker, has made Paxton’s story about corruption allegations a central objective of his campaign.
“The president picked Paxton and he has $350 million,” Cornyn recently told Semaphore. “I think he can spend his money.”
Another challenge has emerged in North Carolina, where Senator Thom Tillis refused to run for re-election after sparring with Trump last year over health care spending. Trump endorsed Michael Whatley, his handpicked former chairman of the Republican National Committee, to run instead, and Democrats hope to take back the seat with former Gov. Roy Cooper.
Some in the Republican campaign leadership expect MAGA Inc. enter Whatley in North Carolina, where some metro media markets in the state can be expensive.
Republicans will likely be able to count on generous support from well-funded official party committees, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this week must be is allowed to make unlimited direct contributions in candidate campaigns. But even that amount is less than what Trump has amassed at MAGA Inc. Although the president is constitutionally barred from running again, he started collecting money shortly after winning a second term, and he regularly hosts fundraisers at his resort properties where tickets cost $1 million per person.
James Blair, the former White House political director who left his government job to coordinate the president’s midterm efforts, was evasive in an interview with Sean Spicer, a former Republican spokesman who hosts a podcast.
“The president will spend significant resources to win the midterm elections,” Blair said. “He cares deeply about winning the party.”
As a super PAC, MAGA Inc. can raise unlimited money from individuals and corporations. However, she is barred from coordinating with individual campaigns or the Republican National Committee, adding to the sense of mystery surrounding her plans.
More than two months have passed since Blair, along with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, pollster Tony Fabrizio and political consultant Chris LaCivita gathered at Washington’s Waldorf Astoria to discuss MAGA Inc.’s strategy.
The gathering focused on assembling teams of vendors, such as advertisers, research providers and digital media company executives who had worked with the Trump team in key states during the previous election and would be deployed once the plans were implemented.
The president has spent much of the year waging a war of revenge against Republicans who crossed him. He viewed Cornyn as insufficiently loyal, held a grudge against Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana who voted to convict him in an impeachment trial, and attacked Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky as “the worst Republican congressman in history.” All of them lost their primaries to challengers backed by Trump.
Cornyn’s loss weighs heavily on Senate Republicans, who have suggested Paxton could cost the party an extra $100 million to defend the seat.
The Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC tied to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, is still expected to spend money on ads in Texas, but won’t play a central role given its obligations elsewhere.
Democrats need to win four seats to take the majority, and they see Alaska, Maine, North Carolina and Ohio as their best chances. The Senate Leadership Fund has already committed to spending $342 million in those four states, plus Iowa, Georgia, Michigan and New Hampshire.
When Paxton came to Washington after winning the nomination on May 26, he had a cordial meeting with Thune focused on moving forward together, according to people with knowledge of the conversation, who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Later that day, Thune suggested that Trump should put money on a candidate that Senate Republicans had not sought.
“We’re going to do what we have to do to make sure the state stays red,” Thune told reporters. “But I certainly hope that the president and the resources he can bring to bear will be committed.”
“It will be an expensive race,” he added.
By THOMAS BEAUMONT Associated Press. AP White House correspondent Seung Min Kim contributed from Washington. Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.
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