Lingering political blowback from the Jan. 6 ransacking of the Capitol isn’t slowing down House Republicans in their drive to recapture Congress in 2022, with their campaign committee raising nearly $20 million in March.
The National Republican Congressional Committee collected $19.1 million last month, $3.6 million more than the House GOP campaign committee has ever raised in March the year before the election. That massive haul put a big red bow on a lucrative $33.7 million first quarter that grew the NRCC’s war chest to $29.7 million, a 57% increase over where it stood at that point in the 2020 cycle, with zero debt on its books. Those figures were bolstered by hefty transfers of personal campaign funds from the No. 1 and 2 ranking House Republicans.
“Republican voters are motivated to fire Nancy Pelosi, stop Democrats’ socialist agenda, and take back the House,” NRCC spokesman Michael McAdams said in a statement, referring to the incumbent speaker.
Last month, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California donated $5.3 million to the NRCC, and Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana contributed another $3.5 million. Their strong fundraising, and that of the NRCC overall, suggests the shocking insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by grassroots supporters of former President Donald Trump and politically charged events related to the mayhem are not deterring the party’s bid to flip the House. The deadly riot culminated months of Trump making unsubstantiated claims that the presidential election was stolen.
Congress was set to convene in a joint session on Jan. 6 to certify now-President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, a routine step in the process of installing the nation’s chief executive that usually elicits little public attention.
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But this time around, Trump was demanding Republicans vote against certification and deliver him a second term. Even after the storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters, when Congress reconvened to complete certification of the 2020 election, House Republicans did their level best to deliver for the outgoing president, with a majority of them attempting to undo Biden’s win. In the immediate aftermath, some corporate donors abandoned Republicans, leaving the House GOP’s fundraising prospects uncertain at best.
Even with Biden entering the White House and House Democrats clinging to a majority of no more than a handful of seats, it seemed unclear that Republicans would be able to survive the initial political fallout and benefit from historical trends and increase the number of districts they control in the midterm elections.
Politics is unpredictable, Biden’s job approval rating is solid, and the country continues to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. But if GOP fundraising in the first quarter is any indication, the notion that Jan. 6 would be an albatross for the party as it endeavors to reclaim the House and Senate now seems like a doubtful scenario, regardless of how the 2022 election cycle unfolds.
