News: Speaker Mike Johnson raised $1.4 million at Rep. Vern Buchanan’s (R-Fla.) home in Longboat Key, Fla., Monday night. It was Johnson’s first big-time fundraiser.
In attendance: Florida GOP Reps. Byron Donalds, Kat Cammack, Laurel Lee, Maria Salazar, Anna Paulina Luna, Neal Dunn and Greg Steube, GOP Reps. Ryan Zinke (Mont.), Adrian Smith (Neb.), Dan Newhouse (Wash.) and Ronny Jackson (Texas).
Johnson to N.Y.: Johnson is heading to New York this weekend for the NRCC’s donor retreat. But he’s also shaking the New York money tree while he’s there.
Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman and Wayne Berman are hosting Johnson for a fundraiser benefiting Grow the Majority NY, a joint-fundraising committee we scooped in the Midday edition Monday. Schwarzman is the CEO of Blackstone while Berman runs the D.C. operation and is a major GOP player. Here’s the invite.
Johnson will also be in Bronxville, N.Y., on Sunday to raise cash for Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.). The fundraiser is being hosted by Maria and Tony Sayegh. Tony Sayegh was a top Treasury Department official in the Trump administration.
This is significant because there have been doubts that Johnson would be able to raise money in the Northeast for vulnerable lawmakers. His brand of conservatism may be popular in Shreveport, La., but detractors thought it would be less so in New York.
Here’s the Lawler invite:
— Jake Sherman
