President Donald Trump reported his largest spend so far this weekend, sending $21 million to candidates in competitive races as pressure ramps up for Republicans two months before the midterms.
The president’s Senate spending before Sept. 8 had largely concentrated on Republican nominee Ken Paxton in Texas, with his $10 million drop coming after party leaders urged him to get more involved. A set of financial disclosures filed Sept. 10-12 show Trump recently backed four additional battleground Senate candidates at the end of last week — while still ignoring incumbent Sen. Susan Collins’ toss-up race in Maine.
No Going Back PAC Inc. — a new committee formed Sept. 1 under Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc. — spent roughly $6.7 million in Ohio, $3.7 million in Michigan, $1.7 million in New Hampshire and $779,000 in Georgia, concentrated on TV-ad buys and mailers opposing the Democrats in those races.
Trump’s disbursements come as Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s new Texas PAC reported its first $6.6 million investment in the state’s Senate race on Sunday, with a combination of media and text-service buys in support of Paxton and against Democrat James Talarico. The group, associated with Thune’s Senate Leadership Fund super PAC, also reportedly booked more than $51 million in advertising Friday to help Paxton.
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As the dust settles from a flurry of disclosures in the first two weeks of September, Thune’s political committee has now entered every major battleground Senate race, while Trump has yet to report dropping significant money in Maine.
Trump and Collins have had a complicated relationship, though he publicly voiced support for the senator’s reelection in June and called her a “sane person” even if “she’s not my best friend at all.” But the five-term senator has recently tried to distance herself from some of Trump’s most unpopular policies for her state, like the president’s ongoing trade war with Canada and a fatal shooting involving a federal immigration agent in July.
The president is going to soon embark on a national tour of in-person campaign stops and telerallies after hosting a midterm convention in Dallas last week, though some Republicans are still worried that Trump entered the spending spree too late in the game.
No Going Back also made expenditures in a new set of House races, including putting roughly $492,000 against Democrat Jamie Ager in North Carolina, $422,000 against Democrat Lindsay James in Iowa, $274,000 against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in Texas, $109,500 against Democratic Rep. Greg Landsman in Ohio and $65,000 against Democrat Sam Forstag in Montana.
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