The NRSC is warning candidates and incumbent GOP senators about the party’s fundraising woes in more ways than one.
An internal NRSC document we obtained shows a ranking of candidates and incumbents based on how much they’ve raised for other GOP campaigns through their digital fundraising — a process known as conduiting. The idea is to immediately display a “call to action” for other candidates and incumbents after someone donates to a campaign.
The document, which was distributed recently to senators and candidates, also contains a number of “recommended action items” to help close the money gap with Democrats, who are raising millions more than Republicans through the DSCC, super PACs and the campaigns themselves.
“Nearly every Democrat Senator is ‘split sending’ for other Senators & candidates AND sending on their own email/text house files,” the memo reads. “We do not do enough of this on our side of the aisle.”
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The memo was intended for internal use only, with the goal of informing senators and candidates about their digital fundraising operations and comparing them to other challengers and incumbents. The NRSC declined to comment.
Other action items include signing emails and text messages for GOP challengers, who are “not as well known to the GOP donor base so having a sitting Senator make the case for them why it is important to retake the majority helps.”
The leaders: Tim Sheehy, the Montana Republican challenging Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), is far-and-away the leader in the conduit category, with $514,615 raised for other candidates through the conduiting process. In a distant second place is Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who isn’t even on the ballot this year, with $226,578 raised for other candidates.
The NRSC’s pitch for adding the “call to action” for other candidates to their digital fundraising pages boils down to this: It costs you nothing, and it creates new revenue streams for other campaigns at a time when Democrats are out-raising and out-spending Republicans.
The dire fundraising situation led to the NRSC’s executive director speaking out publicly last week, saying the party will “lose winnable races” if they can’t close the gap more quickly. In fact, during a closed-door Senate GOP lunch at NRSC headquarters on Tuesday, that was exactly the message from NRSC Chair Steve Daines (R-Mont.).
We scooped on Tuesday that Senate Minority Whip John Thune, who’s running to succeed Mitch McConnell as GOP leader, announced during the meeting that he’s transferring $4 million to the NRSC from his personal campaign account. It’s the largest such transfer in NRSC history.
— Andrew Desiderio
