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NRSC posts best-ever January off-year fundraising

NRSC posts best-ever January off-year fundraising

News: The NRSC raised $8.5 million in January, a record for the Senate GOP campaign arm in January of an off-year. But the NRSC remains in debt after a successful yet costly 2024 cycle where the Republicans won back the majority and flipped four seats.

In an NRSC memo circulated to Senate Republican chiefs of staff, NRSC Executive Director Jennifer DeCasper wrote that the group will “enter this cycle with nearly $24 million in debt and unpaid bills from last cycle and limited cash on hand.”

The NRSC finished the year with $2.7 million cash on hand.

“Winning is expensive,” DeCasper wrote. “This is why your engagement and participation is so important.”

What’s next: Republicans control 53 seats heading into the 2026 midterms. It’s unlikely that Democrats could regain control of the chamber in the midterms, but Republicans nonetheless have to defend several incumbents, including potentially blockbuster races in North Carolina and Maine.

However, Senate Republicans did get a pick-up opportunity in Michigan following the recent retirement announcement by Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. And in Georgia, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff could face a tough reelection fight if GOP Gov. Brian Kemp runs.

“With the races in Ohio and Florida added to the plate, we are looking at what we expect to be the most expensive mid-term for Senate Republicans in history,” DeCasper says in the memo.

Raskin staff move: Marcus Childress is the new special counsel for investigations and senior adviser for House Judiciary Committee Democrats. Childress, who worked as an investigative counsel for the Jan. 6 select committee, most recently served as a partner at Jenner and Block.

In other Judiciary news, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) is leading a letter requesting the Justice Department release the second volume of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report.

Downtown Download. Matthew Turkstra is joining Citigroup as a new director of federal government affairs with a focus on tax policy. Turkstra previously worked for the Associated General Contractors of America, where he led the group’s advocacy efforts around the 2017 Trump tax cuts.

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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. Political ads courtesy of AdImpact.