The Club for Growth is considering putting some financial muscle behind President Trump’s re-election, after being one of the few conservative groups in 2016 to actively oppose his bid for the Republican nomination.
Pleased with the $1.3 trillion tax overhaul and Trump’s deregulation policies, Club for Growth president David McIntosh told the Washington Examiner that the free-market advocacy organization could be on the verge of rethinking its position on Trump.
The Club for Growth typically focuses on electing like-minded Republicans to Congress, as it did in last week’s midterm elections. But two years ago, concerned about the president’s liberal approach to trade and other issues, the club expanded its mission and tried to derail Trump in the primary — a position that it’s now ready to revisit.
“We’re looking seriously at getting involved in [2020] to support Trump. My board has not made that call, but it’s starting that discussion of what we should be doing,” McIntosh said Monday in an interview.
Trump and the Club for Growth battled each other through the 2016 primary. Trump accused the club of opposing him only after he refused to write the group a seven-figure check. The club warned that Trump was a Democrat in disguise who would usher in liberal economic policies to the detriment of the economy, but they have since made peace.
The group, long a thorn in the side of establishment Republicans in Washington, has evolved into more of a team player. In the past, the Club for Growth might target moderate Republicans in tough district and finance conservative primary challengers to run against them. These days, the group tends to direct its energy toward electing conservatives to House districts and Senate seats.
This cycle, the Democrats achieved a convincing takeover of the House of Representatives and minimized their losses in the U.S. Senate. In Montana, where the Club for Growth invested, the Democratic incumbent prevailed.
But the group’s candidates were successful in other targeted Senate contests and a bevy of House races. McIntosh, a former Republican congressman from Indiana, was upbeat as he described the Club for Growth’s 2018 performance in the 2018 campaign, which he called the organization’s “best two-year cycle ever.”
The club and its affiliates raised and spent around $30 million over the two years, including more than $12 million on House races. McIntosh said club-endorsed candidates were victorious in seven of nine House races the group played in. Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., was one of the group’s few disappoints in the House.
Two club-endorsed GOP Senate candidates, state Attorney General Josh Hawley of Missouri and Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, were successful. A third, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, finished ahead on Election Day but his fate was unclear as his race underwent a recount. The club’s other big win was Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who narrowly scooted by Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke in Texas.
“We thought he’d win by four or five [points]. … It was a little bit lower than we thought,” McIntosh said. “That was driven by Beto, his personality, his campaign approach … He was able to get young people and new voters to the polls.”
The Republican Party took a hit last week as typically Republican voters in suburbs across America punished the GOP for Trump. The economy is growing, and voters are optimistic about their finances, but it wasn’t enough to override their dissatisfaction with the president’s provocative behavior and coarse rhetoric. The repudiation was particularly acute among women.
McIntosh seemed to acknowledge the problem, but ultimately blamed House Republicans, not Trump, for the shellacking they took at the polls. McIntosh said House Republicans dropped the ball by not proposing to enact even more tax cuts if voters granted them another two years in the majority.
Not long after last year’s historic tax bill passed, the president shifted to trade, immigration, and a host of other issues, frustrating House Republicans who were laboring to keep the party’s message focused on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Nevertheless, McIntosh said that it was the Republicans in the House that did not properly “frame” the issues.
“Voters are always interested in: ‘What are you going to do for me next,’” McIntosh said. “The tax cut issue was the No. 1 issue in those Republican suburbs.”
