Rep. Tom MacArthur got the call late on a Saturday night: President Trump would host a fundraiser for him the following weekend. By Friday, the New Jersey Republican had raised $825,000 for the event.
It’s a staggering amount for a rank and file House member, even one with the New Jersey and New York donor communities to draw from. MacArthur said it totaled far more than he’s ever raised before for a single event — and that it couldn’t have happened without Trump, who hosted the June event at his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J.
“I think the fact that the president wanted to help me made these people want to help me,” MacArthur said Friday in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “We had a frantic week of making phone calls.”
MacArthur, 56, represents a swing district in southern New Jersey. He has raised his profile by playing a prominent role in negotiations that led to passage of the House GOP bill to partially repeal Obamacare.
But the $825,000 he raised in one event is unusual for a House member that is not a member of the elected leadership or major committee chairman.
The money for the Bedminster event was raised for a joint fundraising committee that included MacArthur’s campaign and leadership PAC accounts; the National Republican Congressional Committee; and the New Jersey Republican Party’s committee for federal races.
Federal law caps individual contributions to members of Congress at $5,400 ($2,700 each for their primary and general election campaigns.) Using a JFC allowed MacArthur to solicit larger donations.
Republican insiders said the amount MacArthur raised was in the range what President George W. Bush used to pull in for JFC events for GOP House members. But the short notice, MacArthur was given, just five working days to raise the cash, was impressive.
Trump was similarly successful in helping Rep.-elect Karen Handel, R-Ga., raise money for her special election campaign in the Sixth Congressional district.
Also with just five days notice in April, Handel raised $750,000 for a JFC that directed money to her campaign, the NRCC and the Republican National Committee.
Trump has had cool relationships with the Republican community of major donors. They were slow to embrace him during the 2016 campaign. Their desire to build relationships and help the team now that Trump is president could a factor in the huge sums he is raising for down-ballot Republicans.
“Folks want to be seen as being on board, which is ultimately the power of the White House,” a Republican fundraising consultant said, on condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly. “There is a lot more support for the president out in the states than those of us in the bubble are willing to acknowledge.”
Earlier this year, Trump helped the NRCC raise a record $30 million for the committee’s annual spring dinner fundraiser. Next week, the president kicks off his fundraising campaign for his 2020 re-election with a high-dollar dinner at his hotel in Washington.
Tickets run from $35,000 to $100,000. If Trump fills the Presidential Ballroom at the Trump International Hotel to its 1,000 capacity, as detailed on the venue’s website, the JFC for his campaign, the RNC and other GOP committees could haul in more than $30 million.
