Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is touting unity within his party as the House GOP’s campaign arm celebrates breaking a record in election year fundraising.
‘This week, House Democrats voted to let illegal aliens vote in American elections, voted against protecting girls sports and fell further into disarray following their role in the greatest political cover-up in history when it comes to President Biden’s fitness for office,’ Johnson told Fox News Digital. ‘At the same time, House Republicans passed commonsense legislation and put up record-setting fundraising numbers to grow our majority.
‘As Republicans head to Milwaukee to nominate President Trump, our party has never been more united, energized and equipped with the resources needed to win up and down the ballot.’
It comes as the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the House GOP’s campaign arm, announced it raised $37 million in the second quarter of 2024, its highest-ever election year total for that time period.
The NRCC also said it had the best June on record, with $14.3 million of that total number coming in one month alone.
It’s served to further push back questions over whether Johnson can match the fundraising prowess of his predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Johnson himself brought in $23.5 million in the second quarter of 2024.
His numbers, along with the NRCC’s total and the House GOP leadership-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund’s announced $46.4 million raised, mean House Republicans have added over $100 million to their war chest in this time period.
The haul also comes before the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Wisconsin, where former President Trump will be formally declared the party’s nominee for November.
Republicans’ confidence in keeping and possibly expanding their razor-thin House majority appears to have shot through the roof over the last two weeks as Democrats deal with the fallout of President Biden’s disastrous late June debate performance.
The 81-year-old leader’s poor showing against Trump has raised concerns among members of his own party over whether he can win again in November and serve another four years.
It prompted 17 House Democrats and one Democratic senator to call on Biden to withdraw from the race.
But the quarter ended June 30, and the debate took place June 27, so a fuller picture of its impact on GOP fundraising will likely be seen in the beginning of the second half of the year.
When asked about his advice for Republican candidates as they watch Democrats in turmoil, Johnson told Fox News Digital Thursday, ‘We need to be talking about the answers we have to all the great challenges that have been created by the policies of the Biden administration.
‘Our candidates have (done) very well in going out and presenting those answers in a very credible way. We feel very good about what we’re doing,’ Johnson said.
House Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), responded to Johnson’s Friday statement: ‘The DCCC has consistently outraised the NRCC this cycle because we have authentic candidates with real records of results, while extreme Republicans simply sow chaos – pushing to ban abortion nationwide and raise taxes on the middle class. This reality is why polling consistently shows Democrats outrunning their Republican opponents across the battleground.’