Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley has become a “GOP cash cow” according to Axios, pulling in millions for his own re-election and for the Republican Party at large, after being targeted by Democrats for objecting to a vote certifying the results of the Electoral College.
Hawley has faced intense criticism for siding with President Donald Trump and suggesting that certain states’ electoral results may be tainted by widespread vote fraud. He was among a handful of Senators who voiced opposition to certifying select states’ electors on January 6th, the same day a rally on Trump’s behalf descended into chaos and, eventually, a riot and attack on the United States Capitol that left five dead and dozens injured.
Democrats made an effort to tie Hawley to those rioters, but while that project had been unsuccessful — for Democrats — it has been heavily productive for Hawley, who drew in millions in the first quarter of 2020.
“Sen. Josh Hawley’s effort to block certification of the 2020 election has been a fundraising boon — not just for him but his party,” according to Axios.
“Corporate donors and establishment Republicans recoiled at the Jan. 6 siege on the Capitol that followed efforts by Hawley and others to block President Biden’s Electoral College victory. But fundraising numbers show the GOP grassroots is still firmly in Hawley’s camp,” the outlet said Monday.
Hawley is the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s best fundraiser, next to the group’s president, making him an indispensable resource for the group, which bankrolls GOP senate campaigns across the country. Overall, the NRSC pulled in more than $8 million, easily beating the Democrat senate fundraising arm, per Reuters.
On his own, Hawley pulled in $1.5 million for his campaign.
Axios notes that that is far and away Hawley’s best haul: “That’s more than 12 times what Hawley raised during the first quarter of 2020, and more than 34 times what he brought in during the first quarter of 2019 — and there’s still more than three weeks left in the current quarter.”
Axios notes that the money is evidence that, despite losing some corporate PAC donors, largely at the behest of Democrats and progressive activists, in the days and weeks following the January 6th Capitol riot, the GOP’s fundraising hasn’t taken much of a hit, thanks to grassroots contributions.
Fundraising actually appears to be pretty steady for Republicans overall.
A Reuters review of around 50 corporate PACs “found that the political action committees (PACs) gave about $5 million to the [Republican] lawmakers during the 2019-2020 election cycle — or only about 1% of the money the lawmakers raised, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) disclosures.”
“By comparison, Republican fundraising operations supporting Senate and House candidates raked in a combined $15.8 million in January alone on the strength of small-dollar donations. These groups outraised their Democratic counterparts by more than $2 million that month,” Reuters notes.
The news only gets better for the GOP. Reuters adds that, after speaking with around 100 corporations, the Chamber of Commerce, which was one of the first organizations to pull funding, says its reconsidering its freeze-out.