WASHINGTON – Republicans who vocalized the loudest urge to come to Washington on January 6th to try to undo the loss of President Donald J. Trump, overturn the elections and fuel the grievances that make the deadly one The Capitol Rebellion sparked have profited amply in the aftermath, according to new campaign data.
Senators Josh Hawley from Missouri and Ted Cruz from Texas, who led the challenges to President Biden’s victory in their chamber, raised more than $ 3 million each in the three months following the January 6 attack on the Capitol in campaign donations.
Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who described the rampage as the “1776 moment” and was later exempted from committee duties for advocating bigoted conspiracy theories and advocating political violence, raised $ 3.2 million – more as the solo campaign of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader, and almost every other member of the house leadership.
An analysis by the New York Times of the recent Federal Election Commission revelations shows how the leaders of the effort to undo Mr Biden’s election victory have benefited from the indignation of their supporters for raising huge sums of campaign money. Far from being punished for promoting the protest that became fatal, they have performed well in a system that often rewards the loudest and most extreme voices and uses insurrection anger to build their political brands . The analysis examined the individual campaign accounts of the legislature, not the joint fundraising committees or the leadership’s political action committees.
“The outrage machine is powerful at generating political input,” said Carlos Curbelo, a former Republican Congressman from Florida.
Shortly after the storming of the Capitol, some prominent corporations and political action committees vowed to end support for the Republicans who had fanned the flames of anger and conspiracy that led to violence. But any financial setback for Corporate America seems to have been dwarfed by a flood of cash from other areas.
North Carolina representative Madison Cawthorn, a freshman who urged his supporters to “gently threaten” Republican lawmakers to get them to question the election results, collected more than $ 1 million. Representative Lauren Boebert from Colorado, who, like Ms. Greene, compared January 6 to the American Revolution, raised nearly $ 750,000.
The amounts reflect an emerging incentive structure in Washington where the biggest provocateurs can convert their notoriety into achievements of small donors who can help them achieve even higher levels of notoriety. It also shows the appetite of a Republican electorate who subscribes to Mr Trump’s false claims of widespread electoral fraud and seeks to reward those who have worked to undermine the outcome of a free and fair election.
Most of the dozen companies that pledged to cut off Republicans who advocated overturning the elections kept that promise and withheld political action committee donations for the last quarter. But that didn’t matter to the loudest voices on Capitol Hill, as a energetic base of pro-Trump donors stood by their side and more than made up for the deficit.
“We’re really seeing small donors emerge in the Republican Party,” said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist. “In the past, the Democrats have benefited most from small dollar donations. We see Republicans catch up quickly. “
Legislators have long benefited greatly from divisive reporting, particularly on important events that match the emotions of an angry or fearful electorate. However, the new records illustrate a growing gap between those who raise money through a bombastic profile – often supported by substantial fundraising expenses – and those who have turned their attention to serious political work.
When provocative newbies like Ms. Greene, Ms. Boebert, and Mr. Cawthorn took in high dollar numbers, other more conventional members of their class in competitive districts – even those who were praised for their fundraising ability – had lagged significantly.
For example, Ashley Hinson of Iowa and Young Kim of California, both against the election challenges and working on bipartisan bills, each made less than $ 600,000.
Ms. Greene, Ms. Boebert, and Mr. Cawthorn raised more money than the top Republicans on the most powerful committees in Congress, such as Funds, Budget, Education and Labor, Foreign Policy and Homeland Security.
In many cases, Republican lawmakers who started the flames of violence on January 6 have since benefited from posing and appealing to their supporters as victims of a political backlash developed by the Washington establishment.
“Pennsylvania didn’t obey its own state’s electoral law, but the establishment didn’t want to hear it. But that’s not what I work for, ”Hawley wrote in a fundraising message in January. “I objected because I wanted to make sure your voice was heard. Now Biden and his woken up mob are coming after me. I need your help.”
Ms. Greene raised funds from a successful attempt to ban her from committees, led by angry Democrats who were outraged by her earlier talk in support of the execution of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and who encouraged her supporters to say “Stop the Steal” on January 6th In the days before and after the unusual vote, she raised $ 150,000 every day, surpassing it every time.
“The DC swamp and fake news media are attacking me because I am not one of them,” was one such call. “I am one of you. And they hate me for it. “
However, Mr. Trump’s polarizing nature also helped some Republicans who held him accountable for his conduct in connection with the January 6th events.
Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 Republican who voted for the indictment against Mr. Trump, raised $ 1.5 million, and Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who founded an organization, raised $ 1.5 million to lead the Republican Party away from allegiance to Mr. Trump. raised more than $ 1.1 million.
“It is obvious that there is a strong market for Trumpism in the Republican base,” said Curbelo. “There is also a strong market for truth-finding and constitutional support.”
Mr. Conant questioned how the increase in fundraising for some candidates was directly related to the Capitol attack. He said the conservative news media had generally “moved on” from reporting.
Instead, he said Republican voters were “very nervous” about the direction of the country under democratic control and ready to support Republicans who they saw as a fight against a liberal agenda.
“It’s worth being high-profile,” said Conant. “It’s further evidence that Milquetoast doesn’t offer a lot of grassroots support in the middle of the road. That doesn’t mean you have to be pro-Trump. It just means that you have to take strong positions and then connect with those supporters. “
But if the Republican Civil War has paid campaign dividends for both sides, individual Democrats involved in prosecuting Mr Trump for the insurrection in his impeachment have not achieved similar success.
With $ 3.2 million in the quarter, Ms. Greene raised more than the sum of all nine impeachment executives – although she received widespread applause in liberal circles for her case against the former president. According to the data, three of the managers have raised less than $ 100,000 each in the past three months.
With money flowing into campaigns, the January 6 attack also resulted in high security spending.
The Federal Election Commission expanded guidelines allowing lawmakers to use campaign submissions to install home security systems in their homes, and Capitol Hill Top Security urged lawmakers to consider upgrading their home security systems to Include panic buttons and key rings.
Campaign filings show that nearly a dozen lawmakers have made payments of $ 20,000 or more to security companies in the past three months, including Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, who voted to convict Mr. Trump; Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, who gave a harrowing report on the uprising; and Representative Eric Swalwell, Democrat of California and one of the impeachment executives against Mr. Trump.
Mr. Cruz and Mr. Hawley were also some of the biggest security issues.
Lauren Hirsch and Jeanna Smialek contributed to the coverage.
