The super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell raised $9.2 million in April despite pressure on the economy from the coronavirus, the Washington Examiner has learned.
The latest take balloons the group’s campaign war chest to $60.2 million.
The Senate Leadership Fund raised slightly less than the $10.9 million collected by the Senate Majority PAC, the super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer targeting more than a half-dozen vulnerable Republicans. But the Senate Leadership Fund has basically pulled even with its Democratic counterpart in cash on hand less than six months before Election Day. An official with the group told the Washington Examiner that this was encouraging.
The Senate Majority PAC announced that it finished April with $61.8 million in the bank, compared with $60.2 million in reserves reported by the Senate Leadership Fund. Comparatively, by the end of April in 2018, the Senate Majority PAC’s war chest dwarfed that of the Senate Leadership Fund by more than 2-1, with the Democratic group banking $32 million and the Republican super PAC reporting $13.3 million in cash on hand.
Senate Leadership Fund is plowing money into races that could tip the balance of power in the Senate, with Republicans on the defensive in Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Montana, and North Carolina. In Montana, the group this week announced a $10.1 million advertising reservation for the fall to defend Republican Sen. Steve Daines. Seats in Iowa and Georgia also are on the GOP’s watchlist. Republicans are only on offense in Alabama and Michigan.
With President Trump’s prospects uncertain, the Senate Majority PAC has grown optimistic about Democratic chances of winning the Senate.
“Vulnerable Senate incumbents have failed to take a meaningful stand against the failed leadership of their party and will pay for it at the ballot box in November,” said J.B. Poersch, president of the Senate Majority PAC.
