Name: Trump raised record money for state parties, then his RNC took it back
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Trump raised record money for state parties, then his RNC took it back

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CloseRepublican state parties across the country are condemning GOP lawmakers who go against after putting their financial fortunes in the hands of the former president.Republican state committees in Wyoming and South Carolina censured their own U.S. representatives for voting to impeach Trump, while GOP committees in North Carolina and Louisiana censured their U.S. senators for voting to convict the former president over his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.&nbsp;State party committees were once considered with their own unique goals. But in recent elections, they’ve increasingly ceded control over strategy and finances to national parties and their respective presidential candidates. The change is particularly evident with state GOP committees, many of which have toward supporting Trump.Trump brought a fundraising boom to state parties during his time in office. Last year, the Trump campaign signed a joint fundraising agreement with the and 46 state GOP committees, allowing Trump to funnel around $90 million to state parties. Thanks to huge transfers from Trump and the RNC, state GOP committees raised $478 million in the 2020 cycle, up from $242 million in the 2016 election.&nbsp;State parties lacking competitive elections sent Trump’s money right back to the RNC. Committees in swing states brought in record sums from Trump and the RNC, becoming major players in the 2020 election. The , whose Sen. (R-N.C.) for voting to convict Trump, raised over $33 million in 2020. It never raised more than $12 million in any previous cycle.&nbsp;The raised $24 million, more than quadrupling its 2016 haul. Led by Trump loyalist Kelli Ward, the Arizona GOP Republican Gov. Doug Ducey for opposing Trump’s attempt to overturn the election. It also censured former Sen. (R-Ariz.) and Cindy McCain for supporting President . Other state party committees are considering punishing their states’ lawmakers who sided against Trump.These measures are unusual for state parties, which have historically focused on local issues, said Ray La Raja, political science professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. La Raja finding that state parties often rejected polarizing politics. But he said that theory broke down under Trump, who pushed to oust disloyal party chairs and enticed state parties with his fundraising prowess.“Your ability to steer money to different committees and tell the committees how to spend it gives you tremendous power over party affairs,” La Raja said. “Trump raised a ton of money for the parties, so that gave him some stature.”While super PACs flood the airwaves with ads, state parties typically focus on mobilizing voters to turn out for their candidates up and down the ballot. Swing-state GOP committees helped boost Trump’s reelection, but since state parties in noncompetitive states couldn’t assist in the presidential election, he effectively took the money back.Trump’s big-dollar joint fundraising committee, , took in over $800,000 from individual donors by splitting the donations among Trump’s campaign, the RNC and state parties. Using loopholes in campaign finance law in 2016, numerous state party committees took the exact amount of money they received from Trump Victory and gave it back to the RNC.&nbsp;On Oct. 15, the received nearly $2.7 million from Trump Victory. The same day, it transferred the exact same sum back to the RNC. The Washington, D.C., Republican Party acted purely as a conduit to funnel $2.3 million from Trump Victory to the RNC. Dozens of state parties in deep red or blue states employed the exact same strategy.The , which Sen. (R-La.) over his vote to convict Trump, didn’t benefit from Trump’s prolific fundraising. The committee transferred the $1.7 million it got from Trump Victory back to the RNC. State parties continued to receive money from Trump — and funnel it back to the RNC — long after news outlets called the election for Biden. They include the Wyoming Republican Party, which House Republican Conference Chair (R-Wyo.) over her vote to impeach Trump.State parties and the national party may transfer unlimited amounts of money between their accounts. These rules, coupled with joint fundraising committees, allow a single donor to effectively contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars more to the national party than they are allowed to under current .Biden and the also took advantage of the loophole. The transferred $4.3 million to the DNC on Oct. 22, one day after it received the exact same total from the .&nbsp;GOP state parties ultimately transferred nearly $72 million to the RNC in the 2020 cycle, while the Democratic state parties transferred around $26 million to the DNC. That means the major parties raised about $98 million more than they otherwise would have under contribution limits.The party transfer loophole didn’t exist until the 2014 Supreme Court decision, which shot down limits on how much an individual donor can give to candidates, PACs and parties in a single cycle. Conservative justices were skeptical of warnings that removing the aggregate limit would effectively kneecap contribution limits.“How realistic is it that all of the state party committees, for example, are going to get money and they’re all going to transfer it to one candidate?” asked Justice Samuel Alito during oral arguments.National political parties have been exploiting the loophole since 2016. And more candidates are using similar tactics to maximize the amount their donors can give. Joint fundraising committees in the 2020 cycle, up from $1.2 billion in 2016. Many of those committees transfer money to candidates, leadership PACs and party committees, which can then transfer that money to other candidates in need of campaign cash.&nbsp;In her last year, FEC commissioner Ellen Weintraub said the McCutcheon decision has “blown a substantial hole in limits to candidates and parties,” potentially allowing for increased corruption as donors get more buying power.“This inherent risk is very real when candidates and parties are accepting more than half-million-dollar checks from individual donors to joint fundraising committees,” Weintraub said. “And we have seen this loophole exploited by both sides.”State party committees have historically been a , focused on assisting more moderate candidates likely to win elections, but today, state-level GOP committees are among the most in politics.&nbsp;Once in office, Trump actively pushed to remove state party chairs who didn’t support his 2016 bid, using the same loyalty test he applied to Republicans in Congress. Rallying behind Trump, Republicans across the country elected strong Trump supporters to lead their state parties, as well as local party committees.“It’s come to the point where you have to be with him 100 percent of the time, or you’re the enemy,” Dave Millage, a Scott County, Iowa, GOP chairman who was removed after calling for Trump’s impeachment, .Other state GOP committees are considering condemning Republicans who voted against Trump. The is expected to explore Sen. (R-Neb.) next month over his impeachment vote.Still, some Republicans are eager to go in another direction. After the Oregon Republican Party claiming without evidence that the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was a “false flag” operation by left-leaning individuals, its members .While some Utah Republicans are pushing to condemn Sen. (R-Utah) over his vote to convict Trump, the state party , defending the opposing votes of both Romney and Sen. (R-Utah). The Utah Republican Party was one of four state GOP committees that didn’t receive any money from Trump Victory in the 2020 cycle, along with state parties in Delaware, Connecticut and Massachusetts.“The differences between our own Utah Republicans showcase a diversity of thought, in contrast to the danger of a party fixated on ‘unanimity of thought.’ There is power in our differences as a political party, and we look forward to each senator explaining their votes to the people of Utah,” the Utah Republican Party said in a last week.Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit OpenSecrets. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact OpenSecrets:Read more OpenSecrets News &amp; Analysis:Support Accountability JournalismAt OpenSecrets.org we offer in-depth, money-in-politics stories in the public interest. Whether you’re reading about 2020 presidential fundraising, conflicts of interest or “dark money” influence, we produce this content with a small, but dedicated team. Every donation we receive from users like you goes directly into promoting high-quality data analysis and investigative journalism that you can trust.OpenSecrets is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Your donation is tax-exempt.Karl joined the Center for Responsive Politics in October 2018. As CRP’s money-in-politics reporter, he writes and edits stories for the news section and helps manage a team of diligent writers. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Karl graduated from State University of New York at New Paltz in 2016 with a B.A. in journalism. He previously worked at The Globe, a regional newspaper based in Worthington, Minnesota. 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CloseRepublican state parties across the country are condemning GOP lawmakers who go against after putting their financial fortunes in the hands of the former president.Republican state committees in Wyoming and South Carolina censured their own U.S. representatives for voting to impeach Trump, while GOP committees in North Carolina and Louisiana censured their U.S. senators for voting to convict the former president over his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.&nbsp;State party committees were once considered with their own unique goals. But in recent elections, they’ve increasingly ceded...

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Karl Evers-Hillstrom

The most comprehensive, nonpartisan money-in-politics resource around. Formerly the Center for Responsive Politics & the National Institute on Money in Politics

Trump raised record money for state parties, then his RNC took it back

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