The strategist taking the helm of the House Republicans’ official super PAC tells the Washington Examiner he plans to maintain the group’s extensive field program in 2020.
Dan Conston, an experienced Republican operative tapped to lead Congressional Leadership Fund, said the group’s voter turnout operation, unique among super PACs and requiring a sizable investment of donors’ funds, would continue as a critical element of the group’s strategy as House Republicans work to win back a majority they lost in spectacular fashion on Nov 6.
“In the coming months, we’re going to look at all of our programs and figure out how we can innovate and refine moving forward, but we believe field is important,” Conston said.
Also referred to as Speaker Paul Ryan’s super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund in the 2020 election cycle will be overseen by incoming House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Conston, a veteran tactician with relationships across the GOP, is taking over the day-to-day running of the super PAC and its nonprofit policy affiliate, American Action Network, from Corry Bliss.
Bliss spearheaded the creation the CLF field program from scratch in early 2017, modeling it after the operation he put in place for Sen. Rob Portman in 2016 as the Ohio Republican’s campaign manager. Bliss invested millions in the program and deployed it to dozens of districts, believing the effort was crucial to preserving the House majority in a midterm election with President Trump in the White House fanning political headwinds for the GOP.
The CLF field program was credited with an early Republican victory in a closely watched and hard-fought special election in suburban Atlanta’s 6th Congressional District in June of last year. House Republicans ultimately lost 40 seats, but some party insiders believe the midterm elections might have been an even bigger disaster for the party absent Bliss’s field strategy.
But after Democratic money began to overwhelm GOP defenses and it became clear the party was on track to lose the House majority, other party operatives criticized the super PAC’s voter turnout effort and Bliss’s decision to invest so heavily in it. Naysayers argued House Republicans needed that money for air cover and that field work should be have been left to the Republican National Committee.
So, Conston’s early plan to stick with the operation after Republican losses is significant. However, Conston is signaling that changes are in store for CLF, as is typical for groups like this with the advent of a new election cycle. All programs, including voter turnout, are likely to be affected in some fashion.
Super PACs can raise money in unlimited amounts. In the 2018 cycle, CLF collected more than $140 million in donations.
