The super PAC aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan, the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), has almost doubled the dollar amount it received compared to the last congressional elections out of concern the GOP's House majority could be in danger due to Donald Trump's controversial campaign, CNN reports.
Many Republicans said donors are wary of giving their money to the presidential race due to the uncertainty of Trump's policies and intentions and are redirecting their donations to ensure that the House will keep its GOP majority and maintain traditionally pro-Republican legislation.
"There is uncertainty at the top of the ticket and we have a significant group of donors who want to make sure that the House is a firewall," CLF President Mike Shields told CNN.
The surge in donations to the CLF also means that for the first time since it was created in 2011 it will have approximate monetary parity with its Democratic counterpart, as until now it had badly trailed in fundraising.
The New Republic reports that the boost in funds to CLF is part of Ryan's overall strategy of dealing with Trump, which has been to give the bare minimum support for his candidacy while focusing his energies on the House by reassuring his base of wealthy supporters who in general seek traditional Republican policies and do not feel comfortable with Trump.
Shields told CNN the plan is to invest enough money into certain districts closer to Election Day to emphasize the importance of congressional contests, especially since they have received far less attention than the presidential race. The emphasis to voters will apparently be that no matter what they think about Trump and the presidential race there are GOP candidates in the House who represent the issues they care about.
Despite early doomsday scenarios that Trump could harm the chances of many down-ticket Republicans, especially those who rely on Hispanic support that the real estate mogul has angered, internal polling shows that GOP congressional candidates are outperforming Trump.
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