Thune presses Trump for more funding toward swinging battleground
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) on Monday revealed he is pressing President Donald Trump for more funding toward battleground races in the midterm…
Senator Thune doesn't usually make his private conversations with the president public, so when he tells reporters he's been pressing Trump for more midterm funding, it's worth reading closely. The Senate Majority Leader sees the map clearly. Republicans are defending a lot of turf in November, and the battleground races he's talking about aren't going to win themselves.
Commentary is separate from the original publisher's reporting.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) on Monday revealed he is pressing President Donald Trump for more funding toward battleground races in the midterm elections, as Republicans fight to stave off losses in November.
Thune said that he’s been emphasizing the question of resources for candidates during conversations with Trump and the president’s advisers, in an interview with Politico. Thune’s push comes as his party has poured massive amounts of cash into the Texas Senate race targeting Democrat James Talarico, while Republicans reportedly transferred funding from candidates in North Carolina to Kansas last week, signaling leaders view scarce resources might be best used in a state the GOP holds a better chance at holding red.
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“I think the president is sincerely interested in trying to do whatever he can to help the team,” Thune said about his midterm conversations with Trump and his team. “I also share with him, too, the importance of just the resources in some of these states. You know, some of the states have gotten very expensive.”
“I … just conveyed to him the importance of ensuring that our candidates are well-resourced,” Thune added.
When looking at House and Senate races, Republicans have made more than $700 million worth of new advertising bookings since the beginning of September, according to an NBC News analysis of data from AdImpact.
In a year featuring multiple battleground races for Republicans, the party has been forced to sink steep funds into Texas. Both parties have combined to spend over $205 million on the general election in the Texas Senate race. Talarico has outraised Republicans, but the GOP has fought to hand GOP candidate Ken Paxon a victory and slash the Democrats’ advantage through super PAC funding and other avenues.
The latest round of ad buys included nearly $150 million to boost Paxton. Texas PAC, the entity connected to Thune, has spent $131 million thus far to boost Paxton, while Trump’s super PAC has also kicked in nearly $24 million, according to the Texas Tribune.
Reported diversion in campaign spending from North Carolina to Kansas additionally signals Republicans are facing a tough year in the face of possible voter pushback come November regarding the economy and the Iran war.
Thune has declined to link outsize investments in the Texas Senate race to diversions from races elsewhere nationwide. “Dedicated donors” focused on Texas have meant GOP groups haven’t yet had to siphon funding away from other key states, he said this week.
The Senate majority leader insisted Monday that Republicans can hold their majority in the Senate, defying the norm that midterm election voters favor the party out of power.
Thune had previously said “a lot” of Senate races are a “jump ball,” noting that affordability issues and energy costs are affecting campaigns, and the Iran war has “sort of trumped everything else that’s going on,” while suggesting that the results in November will come down to voter turnout.
“I think all of these races are margin of error, at least the ones that we have to win,” Thune said this week. “And historically, at least if you look at polls, we tend to outperform them.”
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
Senator Thune doesn't usually make his private conversations with the president public, so when he tells reporters he's been pressing Trump for more midterm funding, it's worth reading closely. The Senate Majority Leader sees the map clearly. Republicans are defending a lot of turf in November, and the battleground races he's talking about aren't going to win themselves. This isn't a squabble between the White House and Capitol Hill. It's a frank recognition that the political ground is shifting under us and nobody gets to coast.
Thune isn't asking for a handout, either. He's asking for a reallocation of muscle. There are races where a few hundred thousand dollars in ad buys or field operations can make the difference, and the president's fundraising machine is the biggest asset the party has. Trump has been good about moving money around in the past, but Thune is right to remind everyone that complacency loses elections. The left is pouring cash into these same districts, and they've shown they'll spend whatever it takes to flip a seat.
What we see here is a healthy tension. Thune is doing his job, pressing for the resources in private and then going public when it matters. Trump, for his part, has the final say on where the big money goes. That's how it should work. The alternative is letting the other side buy the map with no response. We'd rather have the pressure than the quiet surrender. Midterms are a verdict on the party in power, and the only way to soften that verdict is to put up a real fight. That's what Thune is trying to do, and it deserves a fair hearing.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.