Both Republicans and Democrats are reporting a massive fundraising surge in the past few weeks as a result of the bitter and contentious confirmation process for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh — but Republicans seem to have the edge.
“We’ve seen a 500 percent increase in our fundraising at the end of the month as tensions have been boiling over in Washington and voters have started to pay attention,” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel explained on Fox News Tuesday.
She added: “Republicans are saying, ‘We want to see results in Washington. We don’t want this dysfunction and this chaos and the resist and the obstruct that the Democrats are putting forward.'”
The Republican party raised a total of $5.7 million from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, compared to $4.38 million raised by the DCCC from the end of September to Oct. 5, which is the day Kavanaugh secured the votes in the Senate to be confirmed.
“We like what Republicans are getting done, 3.7 percent unemployment, the lowest since we put a man on the moon,” McDaniel said. “And the numbers are being backed up by high fundraising dollars, small online donors — they really are energized to win the majorities, keep those majorities in November.”
While they may have gotten their base riled up, Democrats seem to have hurt themselves overall with their ruthless political machinations during Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing.
The party in power usually loses seats in midterm elections because satisfied voters become complacent. But the Democrats’ outrageous antics in the Kavanaugh fight have awakened a sleeping Republican giant.
“It provided the adrenaline shot that we had not been able to achieve in any other way,” McConnell told reporters at a press conference in Louisville.
At a recent event in Washington, D.C., House Speaker Paul Ryan offered a similar take.
“I can just see it just from traveling around the country in the last few days, traveling around Wisconsin, the Republican base is definitely animated after this,” Ryan said.
A Republican in Connecticut who is running for Senator Chris Murphy’s seat seems to have benefitted from the rancorous confirmation battle. Matt Corey reported raising three times as much for his campaign in the last 10 days than the previous 10 months — a boon that his team attributed to Kavanaugh.
Fox News’ Harris Faulkner asked McDaniel for her thoughts on a recent CNN poll that showed 58 percent of Americans disapproved of the way Democrats handled the Kavanaugh nomination, with only 30 percent approving.
The RNC chairwoman said she wasn’t surprised, because the way the Democrats, particularly Senator Dianne Feinstein, handled the Blasey-Ford letter accusing Kavanaugh of sexual abuse 36 years ago was “shameful.”
She said that the disruptions during the hearing and Supreme Court protests were “not what we want for our country.”
“We should be able to have a civilized discussion without rioting or attacking the other party, and that’s just not what the Democrats have done during this process,” McDaniel declared.
“The left’s angry mob has Republicans energized,” McDaniel tweeted Monday. “In the first week of October, we raised 500 % MORE online than we did in the first week of September. Let’s keep that momentum going and #DefyHistory on Nov 6th!”
The left’s angry mob has Republicans energized.
In the first week of October, we raised 500% MORE online than we did in the first week of September.
Let’s keep that momentum going and #DefyHistory on Nov 6th!
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) October 8, 2018
More than 1,000 new online donors registered and contributed to the party on three separate days in September, an RNC spokesperson told Fox News:
Since July, the RNC has attracted a surge of 300,000 additional volunteer [leads].
The RNC also reported a record 50 million voter contacts, surpassing the total non-paid voter contacts they made in the 2016 presidential election cycle.
Meanwhile, the National Republican Congressional Committee, which handles GOP House races, has seen a 418 percent increase in online donations in the first week of October:
UPDATED: NRCC low-dollar fundraising facts over the last week (10/1-10/5)
Total Raised ⬆️ 418%
Individual Donors ⬆️ 273%
Donations ⬆️ 279%
Average Donation ⬆️ 149%This SCOTUS fight energized the GOP base and they’re ready to vote.
— Matt Gorman (@mattsgorman) October 6, 2018
Since February of 2017, the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) has opened 40 field offices and made over 24 million voter contacts:
Each office is supported by a full-time staffer and hundreds of interns and volunteers who engage with voters on a daily basis through hyper-targeted phone banking and door-to-door canvassing.
CLF’s 5,500 grassroots volunteers aim to make 24 million voter contacts nationwide.
Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition (FFC) is doing its part with an aggressive get out-the-vote plan in place “to corral 26,562,539 Evangelical and pro-life Catholic voters to the polls”:
The plan will involve “19 million pieces of voter education mail,” “30 million voter guides” to be distributed in “137,000 churches,” “32 million videos” on social media, text messages, and targeted phone calls in the final six hours polls are open.
“Let me tell you what’s gonna happen,” Reed said at the Gateway Eagle Forum in St. Louis last month. “In North Dakota, in Missouri, in Montana, Indiana, Florida, Nevada, Arizona, Tennessee, now Texas where they’re trying to take out Ted Cruz — and by the way they can forget it,” Reed said, “in all those key Senate races and about 40 House races, we’re gonna turn out the biggest Christian vote that has been seen in a midterm election in modern political history.”
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