House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy achieved a record fundraising haul for 2019, which at $52.35 million raised the bar set by former House Speaker Paul Ryan in 2017 by $8 million.
McCarthy’s four campaign and joint fundraising committees, Take Back the House 2020, McCarthy Victory Fund, Kevin McCarthy for Congress, and Majority Committee PAC, took in $52.35 million last year, the most that a House Republican has ever raised in one year, he announced Monday.
In 2017, the year before his retirement, Ryan-related fundraising groups took in $44 million.
In 2019, McCarthy took in $23.06 million in the first quarter, $10.66 million in the second, $7.85 million in the third, and $10.78 million in the fourth. The strong showing in the second half of the year, though less than the first half, was significant compared to previous years and came as House Democrats began hearings to impeach President Trump.
Two outside fundraising groups with ties to the Republican leadership announced their own record fundraising Monday. America Action Network and the Congressional Leadership Fund brought in a combined $68 million last year, their largest ever haul in an off year. CLF has $28 million cash on hand, more than twice what it has ever had going into an election year. Both groups back House Republicans.
Currently in the minority, “conventional wisdom holds that they don’t have a pathway out,” Politico Playbook reports, but the groups’ robust fundraising shows the belief among voters that a fight is worthwhile.
In a statement this morning, McCarthy called for a Republican majority in 2021 and a Trump reelection in November. “These factors,” McCarthy said, “along with President Trump’s ability to ignite Republican turnout lead me to believe we are on the cusp of delivering another Republican revolution.”
[Also read: Kevin McCarthy: Work on ‘tax cuts 2.0’ underway]
