Establishment Republicans worried about repeating 2022 mistakes
Ryan King
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As Republicans try to recoup from their 2022 midterm losses, party leaders are at odds over how to address the GOP’s electability problem.
Senate leadership has been adamant that the party’s goal must be to win across the board in 2024, but the anti-tax Club for Growth is seeking to elevate fiscal conservatism and even meddling in early primaries to achieve wins next cycle. The developments highlight a growing rift between top Republicans and the influential conservative group.
CLUB FOR GROWTH DRAWS 2024 BATTLE LINES IN KEY SENATE PRIMARIES
Already, the Club for Growth has managed to alienate both Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and former President Donald Trump, two fierce political rivals. The group publicly chastised McConnell as a member of the “establishment Republicans” and snubbed Trump at a donor retreat, drawing his fury.
Most notably, the group has begun drawing battle lines in Republican primaries that are seemingly at odds with the National Republican Senatorial Committee in at least three states: West Virginia, Montana, and Ohio.
Those states are widely regarded as possible pickup opportunities for the GOP, which is eager to recapture the 51 to 49 Democratic-controlled upper chamber.
In Montana, the Club for Growth is seeking to pull Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) into the race, despite his defeat to Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) in 2018, while the NRSC appears to be trying to recruit former Navy SEAL and businessman Tim Sheehy into the contest.
In West Virginia, the group plans to spend $10 million to elevate Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV), despite many Republicans interested in recruiting Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV), a popular governor who has topped Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) in some polls.
Then, in Ohio, the group has been trying to court Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) in the heated race to dispatch incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH).
This isn’t the first time Club for Growth has clashed with party leaders. Earlier this year, it spent about $16,000 on an ad casting former Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN) as an establishment Republican, seeking to deter him from running for the Senate. The group favored Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN). Ultimately, Daniels opted not to run.
“They didn’t do a really great job last time around,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said, per Politico. “Their folks were underperformers and I just think people are tired of the anger and the vitriol and actually want to see people get along and get some things done.”
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), who leads the NRSC, has reportedly sought to take a more hands-on approach to candidate recruitment ahead of this coming election cycle, privately saying that candidate quality was a massive liability for the GOP last time.
Many Republicans have raised fears that Club for Growth meddling in primaries could create messy conditions that will make conditions ripe for Democratic victories in general election races.
“That’s an old shopworn line that the moderates have used for 20 years. And the data shows they’re wrong,” David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth, told the outlet. “The milquetoast kind of establishment Republicans actually do worse.”
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While frustrating Republican leadership, particularly in the Senate, the group has also alienated backers of Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 GOP primary. McIntosh previously told the Washington Examiner he was “convinced that our weakest candidate for winning the White House is Donald Trump.”
“It goes with the role, because if we weren’t willing to take some incoming and people not liking us, we couldn’t do our job,” McIntosh said. “But the primary [goal] is that focus on the economic conservatives.”