The Club for Growth is moving to rescue Republican majorities in Congress with financial investments in critical contests.
The free-market advocacy group, usually a player in GOP primaries, plans to spend this fall on vulnerable Republicans, with money earmarked for Reps. Dave Brat of Virginia and Ted Budd of North Carolina. Club resources also are headed to Washington state to help Republicans defend the open 8th Congressional District.
“We’ll have about a dozen races where we’ll be bundling from Club for Growth members,” the group’s president, former Indiana Rep. David McIntosh, told the Washington Examiner on Thursday. He added that the Club would fund independent expenditure advertising in many of those contests.
House Republicans are clinging to a 23-seat majority.
The Club for Growth made its mark as an anti-establishment group intent on federal shaping policy by influencing the outcome of Republican primaries in politically safe House and Senate seats. For years, it would sit out the general election, sometimes leaving the Republicans it helped nominate on their own to figure out how to raise money without bundled club cash.
But more recently the club has taken an interest in protecting its investments, a welcome development for Republican insiders who for years criticized the organization for nominating weak general election candidates.
This cycle, the club is spending money on Republican Senate challengers to help the GOP protect a slim, one-seat majority. Already, it has placed early investments in Missouri and Montana, and could boost GOP candidates running against Democratic incumbents in other states.
Meanwhile, the club is on a mission to rescue of Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican it bet on back in 2012 in the primary.
Cruz is embroiled in an unexpectedly close race with Rep. Beto O’Rourke, and the Club plans to spend “well into seven figures” to tear down the Democrat with attack ads outlining his liberal record. With some Republicans worrying O’Rourke might lift to Democrats down ticket running for the House and the state legislature, the Club’s involvement in the Senate race is a welcome development on the Right.
“It’s an effort to help the whole party,” McIntosh confirmed.
