House Minority Whip Steve Scalise is ramping up his fundraising efforts as Republicans fight to win back the majority this fall, logging more than 8,000 miles crisscrossing the country this year in a push to raise money as election season heats up.
With Republicans needing to flip only five seats to take back the House in November, Scalise said he believes his party has strong momentum, noting that historically, the party that holds control of both Congress and the White House loses seats in the midterm elections. While the Louisiana Republican said he feels good about the GOP’s odds, he is not taking anything for granted, asserting that leadership is committed to raising as much money as possible and crafting a solid campaign strategy to get candidates across the finish line.
Scalise highlighted that since the GOP lost control of the lower chamber in 2018, he has brought in more than $100 million between Scalise for Congress, Team Scalise, Eye of the Tiger, and Scalise Leadership Fund, with a mix of small and large donations.
“We’ve been shattering a lot of records, and since we’ve been in the minority, have raised over $100 million through the Scalise leadership role. So it’s been a lot of work, but it shows that there’s a lot of interest in seeing the Republicans take back the House this November,” Scalise told the Washington Examiner in an interview. He added that donations from 327,558 donors he has brought in since 2019 have averaged less than $50.
“I’ve been breaking records digitally, and that’s an investment I made early on — to invest in digital fundraising. It does have startup costs at the beginning to get that working to the point where we’re bringing in over a million dollars every month, online or stevescalise.com — it’s hard to imagine that much money coming in through small donations.”
Scalise said he sees Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s victory in the Virginia gubernatorial race, the unexpectedly close New Jersey gubernatorial race, and pickups in state legislatures in traditionally blue and purple states as bellwethers for what the political landscape could look like in November. In addition, Scalise argued that the Biden administration’s and blue states’ handling of the pandemic, gas prices, and the administration’s foreign policy fumble in Afghanistan, in conjunction with Republicans’ messaging on education, are attracting voters, pointing to President Joe Biden’s approval ratings currently being underwater.
“I think a lot of these Democrat leaders that shut things down against the science are paying a price for it now. You saw [former New York Gov. Andrew] Cuomo getting run out of office; Gavin Newsom had a major recall against him. The states that stayed open, such as Florida and Texas, are the states that are thriving. New York, New Jersey people are fleeing in droves because they know what’s best for their families’ health and safety, but they also know you can do it while maintaining your freedom,” he continued.
“There are a lot of people that really want us to get back to those policies that were working under President Trump. And in — that’s, again, that came through in not just the Virginia election, but he saw in New Jersey, where the Republican candidate almost won despite being avidly underfunded. The truck driver can beat the Senate president in New Jersey shows it wasn’t just Virginia.”
Scalise, who has run 392 events for members of Congress and congressional candidates since 2019 and given more than $33 million to the House GOP’s campaign arm, applauded National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Emmer’s efforts on fundraising and recruitment, touting that Republicans have brought in a diverse group of candidates he feels will help pick up seats this cycle.
“We have phenomenal candidates, and that’s where it starts. You can’t beat an incumbent Democrat, even if they’ve got a horrible voting record, and every one of them has been voting over 95% with [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] — but you’re not going to beat him if you don’t have a top-tier candidate,” he said.
“We have a lot of people with military backgrounds that have fought for our country’s freedom overseas, and now they recognize the threat to our freedoms here at home, and they want to be a part of getting our country back on track. And it’s not just military veterans. We have a lot of minorities that are running, we have a lot of people from different walks of life that want to be a part of being a Republican majority. I think it’s going to be exciting when the country sees the kind of high-quality candidates we have.”
While he feels confident about the GOP’s ability to win back the House, Scalise said it is hard to pinpoint the number of seats Republicans will take back on Election Day, stating that there could be more than 50 seats in play.
“If you look, historically, 25 to 30 seats flipping is kind of the range of precedent in the first midterm. It could be higher or lower because this cycle, because we have redistricting, and redistricting has been a mixed bag. I think there were some people who had a misconception that we could win the majority just on redistricting,” he said.
“We never thought that would be the case, but at the same time, you really won’t know the full number until we see how all the states draw their maps, because then, you figure out which are going to be the true battleground districts, and now, they are going to be well over 50 competitive seats. So, generally, if you have 50 swing districts in a wave election, a lot of those seats are going to go our way,” he said, adding that Republicans are much closer to the 218 members needed to hold control of the chamber than they were in 2010.
“I think it could be a really good night for us if these trends continue. The big challenge is the election is still months away, and that’s where our whole leadership team comes in. Tom Emmer, the head of the NRCC, has been very clear about this, too. We haven’t won yet. We really are excited about the opportunity to win the majority back, but the election hasn’t happened yet, and we’re not going to stop working until then.”
