President Trump has tapped four Senate Republicans to raise money from colleagues for his reelection bid, the Trump campaign announced.
Dubbed “Senate captains,” Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, and Rob Portman of Ohio are being tasked by Trump with collecting campaign donations from fellow Senate Republicans. The donations from GOP senators’ campaign accounts and political action committees will help support voter turnout operations across the country being overseen by the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee.
“The Republican Party is unified around President Trump and we are utilizing the extensive talents of all our supporters to win in November,” Kimberly Guilfoyle, a Trump campaign finance chairwoman, said in a statement issued Wednesday.
Less than five months before Election Day, Trump is struggling in national polls and narrowly trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in most surveys of voters in the battleground states that will decide the outcome. The Republican Party’s three-seat Senate majority is also on the rocks, in part because of an onslaught of Democratic money.
Senate Republicans are on defense in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Montana, and North Carolina. The GOP appears to have only two pick-up opportunities — in Alabama and Michigan. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is up for reelection in Kentucky, said his colleagues support for the Trump campaign would lift all boats and help preserve his party’s power on Capitol Hill.
“The new Senate Captains program, led by Kimberly Guilfoyle and the Trump Victory Finance Committee, will give our party the resources it needs to re-elect President Trump and defeat the Democrats’ leftist agenda,” McConnell said.
