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Republicans are shook over Democrats’ fundraising efforts, and we’re starting to see them look for ways to change the momentum.
One sign? Sen. JD Vance is pushing his billionaire benefactor and mentor, Peter Thiel, to throw his financial heft behind the Trump campaign. Thiel, who shares elements of Vance’s brand of far-right, technocratic illiberalism, supported Trump in 2016 and helped fund the senator’s 2022 election bid, but this year Thiel has said he’s not interested in endorsing a candidate after his disappointment with Trump’s presidency. Thiel did say he might change his mind, though. Vance appears to be banking on it.
“I’m going to keep on talking to Peter and persuading him that — you know he’s obviously been exhausted by politics a little bit — but he’s going to be really exhausted by politics if we lose and if Kamala Harris is president,” Vance said in an interview with the Financial Times. “He is fundamentally a conservative guy, and I think that he needs to get off the sidelines and support the ticket.” (A representative for Thiel did not respond to CNBC's request for comment.)
Vance is taking a slightly different approach than Trump, who in recent months has openly threatened CEOs who don’t endorse him. And without subpoena power of his own, Vance has also been forced to take a different approach than House Republicans and Republican attorneys general, who’ve opened investigations into the fundraising platform ActBlue, which Democrats have used to notch historic fundraising hauls since Vice President Kamala Harris entrance into the race. “These inquiries point to unspecified allegations of possible foreign money laundering or identity theft supposedly being carried out by bad actors on ActBlue,” Fast Company reported. ActBlue told the outlet, “in 2024, it is all too commonplace to see attempts to spread disinformation from the far-right and our organization is prepared to address the bad actors.”
Recent fundraising data give us some insight into what may be driving Republican concerns. The Harris campaign significantly out-raised the Trump campaign in July, which The Washington Post notes may allow her “to air more ads and maintain a larger payroll than her Republican opponent in the final months of the race for the White House.”
There are already signs that the huge fundraising hauls Team Harris has raked in have allowed it to reach out to voters in areas Democrats might have otherwise deprioritized without so much cash on hand. This week, they launched an ad campaign in the area around Trump’s home in Florida.
When you consider all of that, it seems clear why Vance would be pushing for his party's top cash cow to get out of the barn and into the milking shed.