As Trump dominates the nomination race, major Republican donors who supported Haley shift their focus to Congress.

CNN
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As former President Donald Trump approaches the Republican presidential nomination, some conservative outside groups and donors opposed to his candidacy are now redoubling their efforts to win the Senate in November. claims that it is necessary.

And some are concerned that Mr. Trump is the front-runner (a scenario made more likely by Mr. Trump’s back-to-back wins in Iowa and New Hampshire), keeping the House and the Senate. They fear that the task of overturning even large constituencies will become increasingly difficult. It was a year in which the Senate election map strongly favored Republicans.

“If Mr. Trump is ultimately the nominee, the threat of a repeat of the past three elections and a Democratic landslide will dramatically increase, making the Senate and House of Representatives even more important.” said Bill Riggs, a spokesman for the action.

The group, aligned with billionaire businessman Charles Koch, endorsed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in late November and has since endorsed her as the best Republican candidate to defeat Trump in the primary. We’ve spent millions of dollars promoting it. Leaders of AFP Action, who are scheduled to discuss their political plans with the network’s donors at a rally in Southern California this weekend, were bruised in New Hampshire on Tuesday, citing the “tough road” they face in their home state. Despite this, he said he would continue to support Haley. According to polls, Trump has a large lead in the Palmetto State primary on February 24th.

But Koch officials said the group’s biggest investment in 2024 will be in the Senate races, which are focused on flipping Democratic-held seats in six states: Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It is said that the focus will be on He has already been endorsed in three primaries, with more announcements to come.

In a recent AFP action memo that appears to be hedging its bets on Ms. Haley, senior administration official Emily Seidel said the Senate is organizing an organization to protect what she calls “one-party progressivism” in Washington. He said it represented “the highest probability operation.”

Eric Levine, a New York-based donor who supports Ms. Haley and is also planning future fundraising efforts for Republican Senate candidates, said the day after Mr. Trump’s New Hampshire victory, “The Senate is in full force.” We are working hard on it,” he said.

He added that a court ruling last month ensured that New York Democrats would have ultimate control over redrawing New York’s 26 House seats for this year’s elections. He said there was little chance he would stay. (A 2022 court-drawn map of the Empire State helped Republicans flip four seats in the midterm elections. This victory gave Republicans a narrow majority in the current House of Representatives.) .)

“The Senate is absolutely critical to saving our republic,” Levine said.

President Trump has threatened to blacklist donors who continue to support Haley, writing on social media that anyone who helps advance Haley will be “permanently banned from the MAGA camp.”

Art Pope, a Republican from North Carolina and a longtime Koch donor, supports Haley’s candidacy and said Trump’s threats only “embolden” her to support Haley further. .

“I and most Americans have a hard time dealing with bullies,” Pope told CNN.

Doug Deason, a Republican donor from Texas who also attends Koch meetings on weekends, has endorsed several Republican candidates this election cycle, including Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Trump. Made a donation.

But he thinks Hayley has reached the end.

“I really like Nikki,” Deason said. “But I think she’s identifying herself with an establishment role that most Republicans don’t want.”

Despite Trump’s early lead, Trump’s critics mocked Haley’s post-election speech and her “flamboyant attire” on Tuesday night in New Hampshire. They point out that his comments and other comments indicate trouble for the party in the general election if he becomes the standard-bearer for the Republican Party.

In another warning to some Republicans, CNN exit polls showed Haley won by a wide margin one-third of New Hampshire Republican precincts that identified as moderate or liberal. The final candidate will need to penetrate this bloc. Additionally, 42% of voters said Trump, who faces criminal charges in four separate cases, would be unfit to serve as president if convicted.

“It’s every man for himself,” one Republican lawmaker said this week about the possibility of sharing ballots with President Trump. “It’s going to be chaos and mayhem and a free-for-all situation. You have to take care of yourself.”

“We need to (campaign) about what we’ve done or are going to do locally,” added the lawmaker, who requested anonymity to speak freely about the Republican challenge in this fall’s elections. .

Of course, Democrats face huge risks of their own this year with the highest voting power at stake. According to CNN’s latest poll, President Joe Biden has an average disapproval rating of 60%.

Democrats and their independent allies currently control the Senate with a 51-49 split.

But Republicans have a big advantage in this year’s Senate race, defending just 11 seats compared to 23 held by their opponents. Three of those Democratic seats are in states that Trump easily won in 2020.

However, in the 2022 midterm elections, the favorable composition for the Republican Party collapsed, partly because some candidates supported by Mr. Trump lost ground in the general election.

This time, Republican Senate leaders worked to build a closer relationship with President Trump.

Montana Sen. Steve Daines, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, became the first member of the Senate Republican leadership to endorse Trump’s presidential bid. Several other prominent Republicans have recently come close behind the former president.

“The NRSC would be wise to work with Trump rather than against him, as he has proven he can disrupt the Senate race,” said Republican strategist Alex Conant. “If you look at our map, there’s no reason why Republicans can’t win the Senate.”

But given polling showing Trump’s poor performance among independents, “the quality of the candidates in the Senate race becomes even more important,” he added.

President Trump has told many advisers and allies that he believes he gave too many endorsements in the 2022 midterm elections and plans to stay out of many upcoming congressional battles, the debate said. This was revealed by three people familiar with the matter. The decision is partly due to his preoccupation with his own campaign, people said, but also because he doesn’t want to alienate key conservative voters by getting too involved in the Republican primary. That’s what it means.

But Mr. Trump has not completely withdrawn from the electoral process, choosing candidates he personally trusts and believes will help Republicans secure a Senate majority, support their campaign, or certify He has chosen to hold himself accountable in a series of important election campaigns for the United States. If he regains the White House, he will serve in the Senate after 2024.

Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake, a strong Trump ally who struggled in the presidential race earlier this year, is a prime example. In October, he announced his early support for Lake, who ran unsuccessfully for Arizona governor in 2022.

Of the three states Trump won and Democrats are defending their Senate seats in: West Virginia, Montana and Ohio, the former president has endorsed them in two races.

CNN previously reported that during a meeting at Mar-a-Lago, he received encouragement from an influential ally, junior state senator J.D. Vance, to get behind the wealthy businessman. , endorsed Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno in December.

Mr. Moreno is running in a crowded Republican primary, but Mr. Trump sees his support as helping narrow the field in a meaningful way, a person familiar with the former president’s thinking said. told CNN.

Trump is also endorsing West Virginia Senate candidate Jim Justice, a personal favorite of his, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Justice, a second-term governor, is facing Congressman Alex Mooney, who is backed by the conservative Growth Club, which Mr. Trump has campaigned with in recent years. The stakes are low in West Virginia, a state that Trump won by a nearly 40-point margin in 2020 and where Republicans are expected to take over the seat currently held by outgoing Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. has been done.

But Trump has so far avoided entering the Montana Senate race, despite efforts to win support from hardline Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale.

This year, Senate leaders have also made it clear they will take a more hands-on approach to the Republican primary.

Leading candidates for the Republican Senate include retired Army Capt. Sam Brown of Nevada, businessman Tim Sheehy of Montana and former hedge fund executive Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania; He lost in the 2022 Republican primary for one Senate seat to Mehmet Oz, a famous doctor chosen by Trump. All three are supported by AFP Action.

Oz continued to lose to John Fetterman in the 2022 midterm elections, as Democrats flipped seats and retained the Senate majority.

This year, the Keystone State will once again be flooded with campaign funds and advertising as part of a key “blue wall” of Rust Belt states that includes Michigan and Wisconsin. Biden flipped from President Trump en route to winning the White House in 2020. .

Vince Galko, a Pennsylvania Republican strategist, said he and McCormick will be joining this year’s Senate vote, even if Republicans unite around McCormick and seek to oust three-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. “We have to walk a fine line,” said one Republican lawmaker.

“We need to make this a campaign about Biden vs. Casey, not President Trump’s rhetoric, but that’s easier said than done,” he said.

CNN’s Daniel Strauss contributed to this report.