Republicans looking to become the next Senate GOP leader are flexing their fundraising chops to line up donations for their current and aspiring colleagues on the ballot this fall.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) planned retirement from leadership at year's end, but not from the Senate, has set off a power struggle between three men eyeing the coveted post: Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) and Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Rick Scott (R-FL).
Thune and Cornyn, close McConnell allies who’ve long been in leadership and considered the most likely successors to the longest-serving Senate party leader, are fundraising juggernauts that together have raised more than $40 million in their quest to buoy Republicans, according to sources.
While key policy debates will ramp up among GOP senators as the decision draws near later this year, fundraising allows those hoping to replace McConnell to grease the wheels with new and old colleagues alike.
Cornyn has raised nearly $23 million for the party and its candidates this cycle as of the end of June, including through his joint fundraising committee and raising directly for individuals or the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, known as the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Some of his most recent campaigning during Congress’s August recess includes fundraisers for the Trump-Vance campaign across Texas in Laredo, San Antonio, and Houston. He also attended a fundraiser this month in battleground Pennsylvania for Republican nominee Dave McCormick, who’s running against Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA).
In addition to those in swing-state races, Cornyn provides money to all Senate GOP colleagues up for reelection, regardless of a seat's competitiveness.
Thune has raised more than $20 million this cycle for Republicans and has faced a jam-packed travel schedule, including upward of 170 events he’ll have headlined by November for candidates or through the NRSC across more than a dozen states. Those include Senate races in the battlegrounds of Michigan, Ohio, Nevada, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Pennsylvania .
Scott, the only one of the trio up for reelection, has been battling for his own race in a moderately competitive contest against former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. Still, he’s managed to deliver hundreds of thousands of dollars for Republicans, the NRSC, and other GOP groups.
He, too, has buoyed competitive races with campaign funds, including in Nevada, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Arizona, as well as for Republican Hung Cao in Virginia’s blue-leaning race.
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Thune and Cornyn are widely considered the front-runners in a contest that won’t be decided until after the elections, meaning a sweep of new prospective colleagues could significantly alter the calculus of the race. Outgoing senators are not able to cast votes, while senators-elect are.
That could bode well for Scott, a former NRSC chairman who irked McConnell allies in 2022 by mounting the first-ever challenge to his leadership. The secret ballot vote ended 37-10 in McConnell’s favor, with one senator abstaining.
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