During the primary campaign, Donald Trump savaged Republican donors as corrupt special interests. Now that he is the presumptive Republican nominee, he wants their help.
Trump announced this week that his campaign was forming a joint venture with the Republican National Committee to raise big money from wealthy donors — as much as $449,400 in a single contribution.
Trump’s formation of two joint fundraising agreements with the RNC is common practice — and smart. The GOP standard bearer is running against a Hillary Clinton machine that could spend as much as $2 billion to defeat him, and this approach could help him even the playing field.
But it comes after the New York billionaire spent months bragging that he was self-funding his campaign and accusing his rivals in the Republican primary of being controlled, and at the beck and call, of their “special interest” donors.
“We are pleased to have this partnership in place with the national party,” Trump said in a statement announcing the creation of two joint fundraising agreements between his campaign and the RNC.
Hillary Victory Fund, the joint fundraising committee between the likely Democratic presidential nominee and the Democratic National Committee, reported to the Federal Election Commission raising nearly $61 million as of March 31.
Joint fundraising agreements enable to party campaign committees and presidential campaigns to legally skirt federal contribution limits and raise more money than they would be able to otherwise for the general election. That’s because they include the participation of several state parties.
If a donor has already given the maximum contribution to the RNC ($33,400), the Trump campaign ($2,700), or both, he or she can write a check to the joint fundraising committee, with that money being directed to participating state Republican parties. Those parties are free to re-distribute the money to counterparts in battleground states, as determined by the Trump campaign and the RNC.
Republicans tend to choose state parties from non-battlegrounds, staffed by loyal operatives, to participate in their joint fundraising agreements. Doing so costs some money, as sending the cash directly to a party in a contested state might allow for greater coordination of political activity under the law. But it also allows the campaign and the national party maximize flexibility and control over resources.
The state parties in the Trump-RNC joint fundraising committee, officially known as Trump Victory and with a maximum permitted individual contribution of $449,400, include: Arkansas, Connecticut, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming. On this list, only Virginia is a swing state.
“The RNC is excited to team up with the Trump campaign,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said.
In 2012, Republican nominee Mitt Romney formed a similar joint committee with the RNC, and it was successful. In the second fundraising quarter of that year, Romney Victory Inc. hauled in $140 million, dispersing $15.7 million to the nominee’s campaign and $53 million to the RNC.
The state Republican parties that participated in Romney Victory included Idaho, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Vermont. The Romney-RNC venture also was joined by the National Republican Congressional Committee, dedicated to raising money for House Republicans, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, dedicated to electing Senate Republicans, and both walked away with money as part of their participation.
This time around, the Republican congressional campaign committees are not party to the joint fundraising committee formed by the RNC and the party’s presidential nominee (Trump Victory.)
Trump said in his statement announcing the creation of the joint fundraising committee that its purpose includes raising money for Republicans down ticket. But sources told the Washington Examiner that, as of yet, there has been no communication with the NRCC and NRSC regarding how much money they might expect from the partnership.
“There has been zero outreach from Trump to the NRCC,” a Republican operative said. “I think both committees are in a go-it-alone viewpoint.”
Republican strategists focused on Senate races are optimistic that Trump will be supportive of the NRSC.
In part, that’s because Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama is a close confidant of Trump, and because the presumptive nominee’s political director is Rick Wiley, a veteran of the party committees who has relationships with many GOP operatives in Washington. Sources say the NRSC and the Trump campaign are on good terms, despite how hard some Senate Republicans are working to distance themselves from the real estate mogul.
It’s possible that the NRCC and NRSC weren’t included in Trump Victory because a recent Supreme Court decision that increased the aggregate amount of money individuals can donate to political committees in an election cycle, as compared to what was allowed four years ago, a GOP fundraiser speculated.
Trump financed his campaign in the primary with personal loans, and never built a fundraising operation. Throughout the primary campaign, he criticized his opponents for raising money, insinuating that they and their contributors were willing participants to bribery and corruption.
Here’s what Trump said some months back about former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who was the most prolific fundraiser of any GOP candidate who ran in 2012: “And when they give five million dollars, or two million, or a million to Jeb, they have him just like a puppet. He’ll do whatever they want. He is their puppet, believe me.”
Because Trump shifted to raising money only this month, repeating Romney’s 2012 success, and raising the same $1 billion that the former Massachusetts governor brought in, could be challenging. Building a national finance operation from scratch, and all that that entails, could be another reason why Trump hasn’t yet reached out to the congressional committees.
Despite some high profile Republican donors signing on to help Trump Victory, don’t look for the committee to raise “big dollars right away,” the GOP fundraiser said. By the time Romney’s money started rolling in, he had been cultivating donors for more than two years.
