“If I can’t spend it on me,” President Donald Trump told a gathering of Republican governors in February, “I guess it means I’m going to be spending it on some of my friends.”
The president was referencing the more than $600 million spread across his network of political groups that he has raised and reportedly plans to spend to help Republicans win downballot races across the country in 2026. Trump’s plan, a departure from his past behavior, is a massive boon for a Republican Party that is seeing good fundraising numbers in some places but could use a bit of a boost in others.
As the Democratic Party struggles with internal debate over how to address its bleeding of support among men and some minority groups, the Democratic National Committee is financially lagging behind its Republican counterpart. As of April 30, the Republican National Committee had more than $67 million in cash on hand while the DNC held just under $18 million in its account. The DNC isn’t closing the gap, either, raising just $11.6 million in April compared to the roughly $15 million in contributions received by the RNC.
Republicans do, however, have some ground to make up as their House and Senate campaign arms are at a significant cash disadvantage. The National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee lag behind the Democratic rivals in terms of cash on hand by $6.7 million and $12.6 million, respectively. The NRSC closed the gap somewhat, outraising the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee by $2.7 million in April. While the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee expanded its cash-on-hand advantage over the NRCC, the latter paid off its remaining $4.5 million in 2024 campaign debt in April, while the former retained about $4 million worth of debt.
At first glance, things appear to be going well for Republicans at the level of individual campaigns. None of the 19 House Republicans in vulnerable seats have less than $500,000 in cash on hand, and eight have more than $1 million in the bank, according to Politico’s analysis of campaign finance data. Thirteen House Democrats in at-risk seats, however, raised less than $400,000, among them several defending districts that Trump won in 2024.
Democrats are reportedly unconcerned by these fundraising numbers, however, as many vulnerable Democratic incumbents still don’t have declared Republican challengers, and if Republicans can’t recruit strong candidates, the cash gap may not mean very much.
At this junction, Republicans face a possible snag. State Republican parties, entities that serve as important stakeholders in the nomination of candidates for office, face internal drama and lag behind their Democratic counterparts in terms of cash on hand.
Republicans in Wisconsin, for instance, recently saw their annual convention colored by clashes between the party’s establishment and MAGA wings over who is to blame for the party’s defeat in an April Supreme Court election. Over the course of that election, the state party spent nearly $10 million. Now, the Wisconsin GOP’s federal committee has roughly $450,000 in cash as of the end of April — a figure dwarfed by the $4.3 million held by the Wisconsin Democratic Party, according to campaign finance filings.
“I have to admit, in the 15 years since I entered this political process, I’ve never seen as many squabbles,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said of the tension between factions in his home state.
Party disunity and poor finances in Wisconsin could prove troublesome for the national GOP, as Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District is shaping up to be one of the most competitive in the nation, and one House seat could be enough to determine which party holds the speaker’s gavel in the closely divided chamber. The Wisconsin governor’s mansion is also up for grabs in 2026.
Arizona’s GOP faces similar rifts between its establishment and populist wings and a similar financial disadvantage. The most recent financial disclosures from both parties show that Arizona Republicans only have $101,645 on hand while the state’s Democratic Party has over $2.2 million. Three contentious House seats and the state’s governorship will be up for grabs in Arizona in 2026. Arizona’s state legislature, where Republicans hold narrow majorities in both chambers, will also have elections.
The Republican State Leadership Committee, the PAC responsible for helping Republicans win state-level races, could be instrumental in assisting Republicans in states like Arizona come Election Day 2026. On April 14, the committee announced that it had achieved its best-ever first-quarter fundraising haul by bringing in $13 million alongside the State Government Leadership Foundation, its affiliated 501(c)(4) advocacy group. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which serves as the RSLC’s liberal foil, by contrast, has not released its quarterly fundraising numbers.
“Our recent fundraising achievements show that we are well positioned to navigate the challenges of this election cycle, whether in Republican strongholds or predominantly blue states,” RSLC communications director Mason Di Palma told the Washington Examiner. “However, we recognize that the liberal money machine is preparing to invest heavily in downballot races, which could jeopardize our progress. To counter this, we need to enhance our fundraising efforts and utilize data-driven strategies for targeted spending, ensuring that we effectively protect our gains.”
Di Palma alluded to the fact that, while Republicans may be seeing favorable numbers now, Democrats have dominated financially in recent elections. During the 2022 midterm elections, for instance, Democratic congressional candidates collectively outraised their Republican opponents by roughly $300 million. More recently, former Vice President Kamala Harris mustered nearly $2 billion to finance her run for the White House in 2024, compared to the $1.45 billion levied by Trump. The 2024 election cycle, however, illustrates that having the most money in the bank doesn’t always translate to getting the most votes at the ballot box.
Indeed, poor allocation of resources can squander the value of a financial advantage. Democrats infamously spent over $90 million in a failed longshot bid in 2020 to defeat Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) by running retired Marine pilot Amy McGrath — and, during the same cycle, narrowly lost the House. In a similar vein, a top Republican super PAC aligned with McConnell spent millions of dollars defending incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in a 2022 Republican primary, only to fall just short of retaking the Senate that year.
Republican insiders privately worry that the president may divert some of his war chest, which he hopes to grow to over $1 billion, to oust congressional Republicans he views as disloyal.
“In the grand scheme of things, a couple million spent on a race against a difficult Republican might not seem like a ton of money, but I just want him to be smart about this,” one longtime GOP strategist previously told the Washington Examiner. “What’s easier? Having to woo over Thomas Massie or dealing with a swing-district Democrat who won because their opponent didn’t get the help they needed?”
Trump reportedly also intends to make liberal use of his powerful endorsement in 2026 to shape the electoral field to his liking. Candidates endorsed by Trump, however, haven’t always fared well in competitive races — a trend that could prove problematic.
Of the 79 competitive races in which Trump endorsed a candidate in 2022, 33 lost, according to an NBC News analysis. The most notable examples that year were in Pennsylvania, where he endorsed state Sen. Doug Mastriano for governor and former TV star Dr. Mehmet Oz for Senate. Mastriano lost his race by nearly 15 points, one of the largest margins in state history.
While there are glimmers of hope for Democrats, no clear answer has emerged for how the party plans to address the president’s $1 billion spending plan. So far this cycle, no Democrat has managed to match Trump’s fundraising pace. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are among the only two to come close, each raising about $10 million during the first quarter of the year.
FEELING BLUE: HOW ACTBLUE, DEMOCRATS’ FAVORITE FUNDRAISER, IMPLODED
Further complicating the position of the Democratic Party is the Trump administration’s aggressive posture toward ActBlue. Citing allegations of “unlawful ‘straw donor’ and foreign contributions to American elections,” the president is attempting to take down what has for years served as key infrastructure for Democratic fundraising efforts. The organization, according to its website, has raised about $17 billion for Democrats and other liberals since 2004.
Irrespective of the merits of conservative attacks against the payment processing giant, scores of senior staffers working for ActBlue, including its top legal officer, have left the organization in recent months, prompting some on the Left to worry about the platform’s future.
Campaign finance filings will always give observers an incomplete picture of what money in politics looks like at any given point in time. Billions of dollars, much of it from anonymous sources, flow through 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations and into activist groups working to influence the political process or elections. Examples include the Arabella Advisors network on the Left and DonorsTrust on the Right. Since such financial activity is recorded on IRS Form 990s, disclosures released on a delayed schedule, the public often isn’t aware of how 501(c)(4)s shaped an election cycle until months after the fact.
Individual billionaires, such as Alex Soros or Elon Musk, can also have large impacts on political spending based on how committed they are to a given election, a variable not necessarily captured in early campaign finance numbers. Musk, for his part, has signaled a retreat from political spending.