Republican political groups dedicated to preserving the party’s Senate majority had a banner fundraising month in June, with the National Republican Senatorial Committee collecting $14 million and the Senate Leadership Fund raking in $30.2 million.
The fundraising totals for the NRSC, the Senate GOP campaign arm, and the SLF, a super PAC linked to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have to be encouraging for Republicans. A tsunami of campaign cash flooded into the coffers of Democratic Senate candidates in the second quarter, especially those challenging vulnerable Republican incumbents, leaving GOP officials worried for the first time that their three-seat majority could fall in November.
For the NRSC, the $14 million the committee raised in June brought its total raised for the April 1 through June 30 period to $35.6 million, the Hill reported Monday. Both figures were NRSC records and left the group with $30.5 million in the bank to spend on the fall campaign. Although the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had more cash on hand, $37.7 million, the NRSC outraised the DSCC slightly in both June and for the quarter.
Meanwhile, the SLF’s $30.2 million June, first reported by Politico, pushed the super PAC’s war chest to $97.3 million. The fast fundraising pace occurred even as the economy remains mired in a coronavirus-induced recession. The group plans to spend at least $90 million of that on advertising defending the GOP majority in the Senate.
As President Trump has found himself trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in most national polls and surveys of key battleground states, GOP Senate incumbents are either trailing or mired in tough races in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Montana, and North Carolina. Republicans are on offense in only two states: Alabama and Michigan.
