EXCLUSIVE: Two outside groups aligned with longtime Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell report that they hauled in nearly $95 million in fundraising last year as Republicans aim to win back the chamber’s majority in November’s elections.
Senate Leadership Fund, which is the top super PAC backing Senate Republican incumbents and candidates, and the affiliated non-profit public advocacy group One Nation, raised a combined $94,789,049 last year, according to figures shared first with FOX News on Tuesday.
Last year’s haul is roughly $400,000 more than One Nation and Senate Leadership raised in total in 2021 and the two groups say their combined 2023 fundraising is a record for an off-election year.
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“There continues to be widespread enthusiasm for our mission to retake the Senate majority. Senate Republicans’ emphasis on candidate quality and raising the resources to compete with well-funded Democrats will pay off in November,” Senate Leadership Fund President and CEO Steven Law highlighted in a statement.
Law also predicted that “Senate Democrats’ days in the majority are numbered.”
One Nation ended 2023 with nearly $61 million cash on hand and the Senate Leadership Fund had over $35 million in its coffers at the end of last year.
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Democrats hold a slim 51-49 majority in the chamber, which includes three independent senators who caucus with the Democratic conference.
That means Republicans need a net gain of either one or two seats to win back the majority – depending on which party controls the White House after this year’s presidential election.
The math and the map favor the GOP in 2024. Democrats are defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs. Three of those seats are in red states that former President Trump carried in 2020 – West Virginia, Montana and Ohio.
Democrats are defending an open seat in West Virginia after Sen. Joe Manchin announced late last year that he wouldn’t seek re-election.
Five other blue-held seats are in key swing states narrowly carried by President Biden in 2020 – Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Texas and Florida, where incumbent Sens. Ted Cruz and Rick Scott are seeking re-election, appear to be the only potentially competitive GOP-held seats up for grabs this November.
Senate Leadership Fund and the aligned American Crossroads this week reserved nearly $50 million to run ads this autumn in Montana. It’s the first major ad reservation this cycle by the two groups.
