A group of outside groups backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., raised nearly $14 million in the first three months of 2018 as Republicans look to keep hold of the Senate in November.
Headed by the Senate Leadership fund’s $9.6 million raised and One Nation’s $3.8 million haul, the groups took in $13.9 million in the first fundraising quarter. Two other groups — American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS — took in $400,000.
The total cash on hand for the groups is $34.4 million.
The first quarter numbers nearly double up the figures from the final months of 2017, when the groups raised $7.4 million.
According to Steven Law, the group’s president, donors are concerned with the fundraising gap between Democratic incumbents — some of whom have upwards of $11 million in cash on hand — and GOP challengers. With a few exceptions, Republicans have faced fundraising woes throughout the 2018 cycle, giving donors motivation to up the ante.
“[There] is growing alarm among our donors about the widening fundraising disparity between some of these targeted Democratic Senate incumbents and their Republican challengers,” Law said.
“I think what has continued to develop among our donor base is a recognition that this is going to be an historically difficult election and there is a sharpening focus on the importance on holding the Senate majority as a firewall.”
The former top McConnell aide also said one motivating factor to keeping to keep hold of the Senate is the confirmation process and the likelihood of a vacancy on the Supreme Court at some point in President Trump’s first term in office.
“[That there will be] at least one more Supreme Court vacancy in the first term of this administration,” Law said. “There is a real focus on the importance of the Senate with respect to both the Supreme Court and [other] federal courts.”
