Prominent conservative donors who avoided President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign are now participating in a new fundraising drive for Trump ahead of his re-election bid, Politico reports.
Donors to former President George W. Bush and former presidential candidates Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Mitt Romney, R-Utah, have agreed to steer their fundraising networks toward Trump. Politico compares the project to the Pioneers network that backed Bush's first presidential campaign. The program will offer rewards, such as invitations to retreats, briefings, and dinners sponsored by the campaign, to donors who give $25,000 or more to the Trump Victory fund.
"I think you'll have a significant number of Bush and Romney veterans that were on the sidelines or didn't get overly involved in 2016 but will be involved in the 2020 campaign," said Jack Oliver, a longtime GOP fundraiser who helped President Bush and his brother Jeb Bush in their presidential campaigns.
"There were still a lot of people who were trying to lick their wounds and hadn't quite gotten over the fact that he [Trump] had whipped everybody. They were slow to come on board," said Roy Bailey, a fundraiser and one of the leaders of the Trump Victory project. He added about 150 people have joined.
"I've had a couple of people that in 2016, they just weren't on board with candidate Trump at all and they said, 'Look, Roy, he has won me over. I'm all in,'" he said.
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