GOP Cash Crunches and Chaos

In the Trump era it’s party-be-damned

With Election Day nine months away, most of us would assume that there is plenty of time for candidates to organize and fund their campaigns. Those involved know differently. They understand that the time to organize- from the top leadership to the phonebank volunteers- is now.  Similarly, it’s never too early to start piling up donor cash.

More inclined to disarray, Democrats typically follow the model described by the humorist Will Rogers who famously said, “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” This time though, it’s the Democrats who have the distinct edge in organizing and fundraising while, thanks in large measure to Donald Trump, the GOP is struggling both nationally and in key swing states.

Trump’s main campaign fund has $33 million in cash compared with Biden’s $46 million. As a reflection of this advantage, Biden has already put more campaign workers in more states, getting a head start on building the infrastructure that will end, on Election Day, with voter mobilization efforts that could make the difference in states where races will likely be decided by a few thousand votes.

A bigger fundraising gap shows up at the national committees. At $21 million, the Democratic National Committee's war chest is more than double what the RNC has on hand. Over at RNC headquarters, the trouble isn’t just financial. Earlier this month the longtime chairwoman of the committee, a seasoned political pro named Rona ROMNEY McDaniel, was replaced by former president Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump.

With no political experience before her father-in-law’s 2016 campaign, Lara Trump devoted much of that year to an obscure effort called the Trump-Pence Women’s Empowerment Tour. She was more in evidence as a surrogate in the 2020 race and recently toyed with the idea of running for U.S. Senate. (She recently dropped this ambition.)

Consider Lara Trump’s resume and you see she has no experience with leading any sort of campaign organization. Grassroots campaigning? No.  Apportioning funds to state and local campaigns? No. Coordinating with state party organizations? No. What she does have, though, is a record of blind loyalty to Donald Trump. Indeed, she is so loyal that even before taking office she said she intended to run the RNC like a “family affair” and she proposed that national party funds help the ex-president pay the tens of millions of dollars in legal bills he’s racking up as he defends against 91 felony counts in four different courts. (So far Trump’s campaign donors have paid $50 million to cover his lawyers’ fees. In January, Trump’s legal bills required that his two main campaign committees  spent about $2 million more than they raised.)

Meanwhile, as the national party becomes what Spike Lee might call a “Trump joint,” state party state party organizations in key battleground states are plagued by financial and leadership problems.

In Arizona, the state party has spent more than it received from donors in eleven of the past twelve months, and as of January, the Democrats had twice as much cash on hand.

 In Michigan, the state party just removed a loudly pro-Trump extremist chairperson because her extreme views were alienating doors.  It will take months before the party functions normally and at that point, its leaders will be way behind their opponents.

In Georgia, pro-Trump GOPers have neglected campaign duties to embark on an ideological purge, removing leaders deemed insufficiently loyal to the former president. At the same time, the party has spent $1 million on  lawyers to defend co-defendants charged as part of an alleged conspiracy to overturn 2020 election results to benefit Trump.

As you can see, national and state party machines are sputtering because of Donald Trump. The fix, as far as he and his minions are concerned, will involve doubling down on Trumpiness, which means more purging of the disloyal, the alienation of traditionally conservative donors, and, eventually, losses for down-ballot GOP candidates.  At the top of the ticket, Trump might yet prevail over Joe Biden, who is losing support among younger voters. If he does it will be because it was, is, and always will be all about him, party be damned.