RNC chief on tape to donors: We need help to win the Senate – POLITICO

We absolutely have better candidates and a better message, McDaniel said, pushing back on what she described as a false, media-driven narrative that the GOPs prospects in Senate races are waning. But, she said, we do need financial firepower to drive our effort.

Newt and I were just talking, in this environment, our candidates can win if theyre outspent two-to-one, but if it gets four, five, six to one, it becomes more difficult, and were seeing that specifically on the Senate side. So my call to action today, McDaniel added, is to please help us invest in these Senate races specifically. Give to any of these Senate candidates, all of these Senate candidates if you can, so all of them can be on TV.

Republican officials say the RNC hosts such calls every few months to provide updates to major givers. The call comes as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other top Republicans are mobilizing to close the financial gap. McConnell has spent August working the phones to raise money from major donors, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

Some senior Republicans have privately grown bearish on the partys hopes of winning the majority, particularly in light of its growing fundraising woes. An array of candidates in key races from Arizonas Blake Masters to Ohios J.D. Vance to Pennsylvanias Mehmet Oz have found themselves badly outraised by their Democratic opponents. (At one point in the call, an Arizona donor noted that Masters rival, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, is flooding the airwaves and made an appeal for other participants to help Masters.)

Adding to the concern is the National Republican Senatorial Committees recent decision to slash more than $10 million in planned TV ad spending. The Senate GOP campaign arm trails its Democratic counterpart in cash on hand by roughly $31 million, according to the most recent filings.

That move has forced the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC closely aligned with McConnell, to fill the void with large investments in states like Pennsylvania and Ohio. During the call, McDaniel said the RNC was creating a joint-fundraising account with 10 state parties to help fund voter turnout programs.

The fundraising struggles have fueled broader worries about the strength of the partys candidates. McConnell last week appeared to lower expectations for a Senate takeover, saying theres probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate.

Senate races are just different theyre statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome, said McConnell, adding that after the election were likely to have an extremely close Senate, either our side up slightly or their side up slightly.

During Wednesdays call, one donor asked Gingrich to respond to McConnells remark, prompting the former House speaker to say he suspects the GOP leader regrets having said that, and that it wasnt useful.

But Gingrich also lavished praise on McConnell, saying the Senate GOP leader is working aggressively to help Republican candidates compete financially. Gingrich also noted that McConnell had been burned in past election years, when the party fielded candidates who were, to put it mildly, strange.

Mitch has always been more cautious, and Ive always been very optimistic, so you can maybe draw the line in the middle, said Gingrich, who said he also believes the partys candidates are strong.

During a question-and-answer session, Republican mega-donor Steve Wynn asked whether there are any dark-money nonprofits that contributors could give to. Unlike political action committees, those groups arent required to disclose their donors.

Some donors, Wynn said, are self-conscious for reasons that are personal to them, business people and folks like that and would rather give anonymously.

The billionaire also offered up some messaging advice. Republican candidates, he said, should run aggressive TV ads casting Democrats as advocates of tax policies that would hurt lower-wage earners and small businesses.

Hard-hitting kind of spots with a mans voice, no soft pedal, Wynn suggested, before giving a sample script: Theyre coming after you if youre a waiter, if youre a bartender, if youre anybody with a cash business theyre coming after you.

Read more here:

RNC chief on tape to donors: We need help to win the Senate - POLITICO