Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s fundraising efforts are floundering in comparison to his predecessor’s, something that may be “critical” to Republicans electoral success, an expert has told Newsweek.
Since being elected speaker of the House in October, the Louisiana Republican has come under political and financial pressure, making it crucial for him to retain the Republicans’ slim majority in the House. The GOP governing body, the Republican National Committee, has also faced financial pressure.
On April 11, Johnson announced that he raised more than $20 million in the first quarter of the year. A Newsweek review of Federal Election Commission documents showed that Grow the Majority, the joint fundraising committee he created in November, raised $9,080,412 in that time.
In comparison, his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, launched the Protect the House 2024 PAC in February 2023 to fund the GOP, and it raised $28 million in the first quarter of that year, a comparable period.
Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Newsweek has contacted the RNC and Johnson’s office for comment via email.
In the last quarter of 2023, Johnson raised $10.6 million and was outraised by Democrats.
Meanwhile, the National Republican Congressional Committee raised $8.2 million in February, while its Democratic counterpart raised $14.5 million in the same period, FEC documents showed.
Speaking to Newsweek, Christopher Phelps, a professor of modern American history at the University of Nottingham in the U.K., said money would be “critical” to Republicans’ success in congressional elections this year, and that Johnson did not “have the connections” or time to raise enough.
“The Republicans have a House majority, but by a whisker: eight out of the 435 House seats,” he said. “They need to defend every one of those and then expand their majority, and that boils down to a few toss-up races. Because of gerrymandering, almost all House seats are now safe. Only about 25 are competitive.”
“Money will be critical in those races,” he added. “McCarthy was a skilled magnet for Republican donor money. Johnson, tied up in the machinations of the hard-right faction of the House, and an inexperienced leader, doesn’t have the connections or, perhaps, the time, to fundraise on the needed level. Money isn’t everything, but a massive disadvantage in money doesn’t auger well for holding the House, particularly given such factors as women’s anger about new abortion restrictions, which are particularly disadvantageous for Republicans in marginal districts.”
Earlier in April, the campaign for Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, said it attained a single-event fundraising record with a $50.5 million haul in Palm Beach, Florida.
On March 28, President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee in November’s election, held an event in New York that his campaign said brought in more than $26 million.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.