Donald Trump is cash cow for GOP state parties
Donald Trump sends shudders through the GOP establishment each day he remains atop a volatile presidential pack, but in reality, local Republican parties have courted him and his polarizing brand for years, eagerly slotting him atop prominent party functions and fundraisers — and happily lapping up the dollars he draws.
Now, a small, growing handful of Republican state party leaders are calling for a Donald detox, worried that all the easy cash is exponentially outweighed by damage he’s doing to the GOP image. Several party chairs who spoke with POLITICO say they’re leaning more heavily on their colleagues to shun associations with Trump, arguing that inviting him to speak — even for a quick buck — sustains his rise.
“I will concede that Donald Trump brings his own realm of ‘do we really want to do this again?’” said Diana Waterman, chair of the Maryland Republican Party, which hosted Trump at an event in June, shortly after he declared his candidacy. Though she described the event as a fundraising success and a “good decision” at the time, she’s talked with counterparts in other states and isn’t convinced she’d do it again. “If you were trying to decide if you wanted him for an August or September event, I can see giving it even more thought than you did before.”
Interviews with 15 state party chairs and top Republican operatives reveal deepening anxiety within the GOP about how and whether to consort with Trump. Some party chairs in states that once eagerly hosted the casino mogul said they’d think twice before letting him headline another event. Others indicated they wouldn’t welcome him in the first place.
“We do not have that interest,” said one southern state party chair. “We want somebody who can win a general election and who has broad appeal all across the country.” And as for his fundraising prowess? “What we look for when we ask candidates to come speak are not only short-term gains, we also want long-term gains. Other candidates can help us more long-term down the road.”
Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said the campaign hasn’t detected any dropoff in interest from state and local parties. The campaign didn’t respond to a request for a fuller accounting of Trump’s upcoming party-building and fundraising efforts.
Yet some party leaders were openly disdainful of Trump’s rise, blaming media coverage of Trump for fueling his candidacy.
“I was in the media for 25 years, I know what the game is,” said Washington state Republican Party Chair Susan Hutchison, a former television reporter in Seattle. “Right now, for the lack of real interest in the political process … news outlets are looking for a story. They made Donald Trump a story. Donald Trump is not the story for November 2016. He’s their summer story.”
Hutchison, who said she doesn’t “think about Trump,” stopped short of saying she’d reject a visit. “I would have to see down the line,” she said. “I represent the Republican Party of the state and so I have to be very neutral.”
That was a common sentiment. Other party leaders, while reluctant to embrace Trump’s brand, said the role of the party is to facilitate interaction with candidates, not to act as a gatekeeper.
“I do not believe Donald Trump will be the nominee of the Republican Party in 2016,” said Missouri Republican Party chairman John Hancock, who said he hasn’t detected discernible support for Trump in the Show Me State. But he said Trump is as welcome there as any other candidate, even though he expects the businessman to flame out like other flash-in-the-pan candidates of cycles past.
And some said that as long as he was helping the party raise money, there was no reason to shut down the idea of fundraising together.
“If the state party coffers are growing and he helps our Republican nominee next fall, sure, it’s fine,” said South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Matt Moore, who noted the first-in-the-South state has welcomed the whole field — and that fundraisers aren’t endorsements. He added, “Particularly in South Carolina, where funds are hard to come by, if he helps our coffers grow, he helps elect more Republicans, I’m OK with it.”
But Trump’s recent demeaning of POWs — suggesting Sen. John McCain is only considered a war hero because he was captured — and his description of many Mexican undocumented immigrants as criminals has spooked establishment Republicans who have hoped to feature a more inclusive GOP in 2016. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, while remaining neutral, has reportedly asked Trump to cool his incendiary tone, and most of the other 16 candidates seeking the Republican nomination have condemned his commentary amid fears that he could drive away voters from the party altogether.
Then there’s the nightmare scenario: Trump hasn’t fully committed to supporting the eventual GOP nominee, and has floated the idea of running as a third party candidate, particularly if he perceives he’s been mistreated by the Republican Party. Mississippi Republican Party Chairman Joe Nosef suggested that those looking to ostracize Trump should be careful of that prospect, and noted excluding him could deepen the resolve of his supporters.
“What’s it going to help? If I try to keep him out of Mississippi … what’s that going to do to hurt Donald Trump?” he said. “Quite frankly, that might help him. I think doing things like overtly excluding people from things just gives them red meat for the argument that somehow there’s some elite class of establishment people trying to control.”
The perils of publicly crossing Trump supporters emerged in Arizona recently, when state GOP chairman Robert Graham was unable to attend a rally with Trump. Around the same time, he halted what he described as an overpayment to the conservative Maricopa County GOP, where Trump was speaking. The backlash—which included accusations from conservative activists Graham’s actions were a subtle protest of Trump — was so intense that he wrote a letter of explanation to fellow state party chairs.
“The rumor emerged that the check [for the county] was cancelled because of my personal like or dislike of a presidential candidate, which is absurd,” he wrote, according to a copy of the email obtained by POLITICO. “I believe our party’s voters must have a chance to hear, meet and learn about each candidate, and cast their vote. This is no different from the gubernatorial elections of 2014 or any other contested primary, and you will not see the AZGOP violate a long tradition of avoiding supporting one single primary candidate over others.”
So why skip the rally? Graham wrote that he was at his grandmother’s 101st birthday party in Oregon.
Though many party chairs declined to speak on the record, noting their role as neutral arbiters of Republican presidential politics, a handful of leaders suggested privately that the party more proactively move to disassociate from Trump.
“People are angry and frustrated with the inaction of Democrats and Republicans alike in Washington and he is not only playing to that anger, he is purposely stirring it,” said one state party head, who has warned counterparts against hosting the flamethrowing candidate. “But Trump is a destructive and selfish candidate whose campaign has made it clear he cares about himself more than he cares about the party, the voters or the country.”
Added another state party chair: “He thinks he’s representing a segment of the population, but you know what? He’s just kind of spouting off. I just can’t believe that anyone would give him a serious platform in terms of their state party.”
On the record, most party leaders were diplomatic about Trump — who has routinely polled atop the GOP field nationally and in early-voting primary states.
“Officially, as chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, I’m going to treat all the candidates the same, regardless of whether they say things I find personally disagreeable,” said John C. Whitbeck, Jr. chairman of the Virginia Republican Party. “I disagree strongly with the comments he made about POWs and the comments about immigration that were made … But it doesn’t mean I’m going to treat him any differently in the process, because I need to be fair to every candidate.”
Trump hasn’t been feted by the Virginia Republican Party but he was the guest of the Chesterfield County Republican Party in April.
The challenge for state parties is obvious. Trump is a cash magnet and fills every room he steps into. In one of his more recent appearances, Trump helped the Arkansas GOP draw more than 1,000 people to its annual fundraiser in Hot Springs earlier this month, many of whom forked over $350 apiece to have their picture taken with the candidate.
“We had to move it to a larger venue because of the interest,” said state GOP chairman Doyle Webb. “It was our best fundraiser in recent history for sure, probably our best ever.”
It wasn’t that Webb, sensing the potential windfall for the party, offered the stage to Trump alone; he invited all the Republican candidates and only Trump said yes.
“We were very fair about how we went about it,” he said. “And we haven’t gotten any pushback.”
Trump has other defenders too.
In Colorado, which is set to hold the third GOP debate in late October, GOP chairman Steve House is urging Trump to campaign in the state and to take part in a fundraiser for the state party, possibly the day before the debate.
“We’re not going to back away from Trump,” House said. “We would love to have him come to Colorado. Fundamentally, if someone’s leading or near the top of the polls, the very least we need to do is find out why. If we ignore the support he’s getting or try in some way to blackball him, we’d be making a big mistake.”
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