Trump is finally hurting Republicans, conservative caucus leader says

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Florida governor Ron DeSantis has a better chance of winning the White House than former president Donald Trump, who hurts Republicans when he’s on the ballot, according to the head of a leading US conservative group.

The Club for Growth, a Republican super political action committee that has given $130mn to Republican candidates over the past two election cycles and backed Trump in the 2020 election, is one of several conservative groups that has turned its back on the former president. The donor network led by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch last week said it opposed Trumps re-election bid.

David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth, said DeSantis would be an excellent nominee based on his overwhelming re-election as governor in November in contrast to the poor performance of most Trump-endorsed candidates in the midterm elections. .

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The Republicans saw him [DeSantis] definitely win and felt that Trump was an obstacle for the Republicans to win, either of the bad candidates, but more so, I think, the realization that when he’s on the ballot itself or a campaign issue, that it’s bringing out the Democrat base. , and ultimately it will hurt you, McIntosh told the Financial Times.

So far, Trump is the only Republican to announce his intention to run for re-election in 2024. But his low early rallies and ongoing legal headaches have cast doubt on the former president’s adversary as a opponent

It’s not like it’s just against Trump, McIntosh said. Its: let’s find the candidate who can have the best shot of winning.

As more GOP contenders prepare to enter the presidential field in 2024, top Republican donors and groups are treading a cautious line, reflecting lingering doubts that Republicans have completely turned away. to the former president.

Some big Republican donors, such as Stephen Schwarzman, Ken Griffin, and the Koch network, have announced that they will not support Trump in the Republican primary. But others are taking a wait-and-see approach, worried that the former president could still win the nomination, either because of a crowded field, or because of continued support for Trump among Republicans. primary voters who tend to be more conservative than Republican voters as a whole.

While the Club for Growth campaigned against Trump in the 2016 race, McIntosh and Trump mended their relationship and collaborated on the 2018 and 2020 presidential election campaigns. They clashed again in the 2022 midterms, when the Club and Trump is the rival candidate in some of the key primaries.

Trump criticized the Club this week after it left him off the guest list for an annual donor retreat while inviting other 2024 Republican hopefuls.

The Club released an internal poll showing Trump trailing DeSantis in a head-to-head match up. However, the DeSantiss lead has evaporated in a multi-candidate field, the polls show, with other potential GOP candidates, such as Mike Pence and Nikki Haley, eating into the DeSantiss lead.

In a head-to-head match up between Trump and DeSantis, the former president has a double-digit lead over DeSantis among ultra-conservative voters.

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While the Club for Growth has traditionally been more influential in deciding primaries and races for Congress, McIntosh said the groups’ support has proven influential in some early contests. Its support of Ted Cruz in 2016 is believed to have helped propel the Texas senator to victory in the Iowa Caucus.

The decision to abandon Trump is fraught with complications for the group, as many of its biggest donors are known supporters of the former president and have yet to publicly endorse another candidate.

According to a Financial Times review of Federal Election Commission records, at least a quarter of the Club’s donors supported Trump during his 2020 re-election bid.

Midwestern shipping supplies magnate Richard Uihlein and his wife Elizabeth, the clubs biggest donor, have given more than $4mn to two Pacs supporting Trumps 2020 presidential bid. Private equity billionaire John W Childs, another top-five donor, donated $975,000 to Trumps re-election campaign along with his late wife. David Frecka, who founded a Kentucky packaging film company, wrote a seven-figure check to Trump and the Club. None of the three have said publicly whether they will support Trump again in 2024.

At the same time, an FT analysis found that some of the club’s biggest donors have given large sums to Ron DeSantis in the run-up to his 2022 gubernatorial race, primarily through his PACs, Ready for Ron and Friends of Ron DeSantis . Their contributions together totaled at least $13mn.

McIntosh noted that the Club for Growth faced anger from some of its members when it endorsed Ted Cruz over Trump in 2016 and is banking on that experience as it looks to 2024.

This is one of the reasons why the board will be really careful about what we do. We have built a coalition of people for the Senate and House races, he said, adding that the group does not want to alienate any of its current donors with its latest endorsement. Many of them are still deciding on 2024, he added.

I’m sure you’ll find some individuals who say I’m all for Trump, or I’m all for DeSantis. But all in all, they wait quite a bit.

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