Trump reacts to Biden's first press conference, crisis at border
Former president of the United States joins 'The Ingraham Angle' for an exclusive interview.
Former President Trump's leadership PAC has $85 million cash on hand ahead of the 2022 midterm elections and as the former president hints at a potential 2024 run, Fox News has learned.
The funds are likely to be used to help Republican candidates across the country as the GOP attempts to take back the majority in the House of Representatives and/or the Senate in 2022, a source familiar told Fox News Thursday.
GUNNING FOR MAJORITY, HOUSE GOP REELECTION ARM REPORTS LARGE FUNDRAISING HAUL
Save America PAC, which Trump formed just after Election Day, started 2021 with at least $31.2 million, according to a report filed in February with the Federal Election Commission.
That report showed that the PAC had only spent around $218,000 by the end of 2020 — all in merchant fees to WinRed, a GOP online fundraising platform designed to compete with Democrats in the battle for small-dollar campaign donations.
After the election last year, now-former Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told Fox News that Trump "always planned to [fundraise], win or lose, so he can support candidates and issues he cares about, such as combating voter fraud."
The National Republican Congressional Committee on Thursday reported that it brought in $33.7 million in fundraising in the first quarter — between January and March — of this year.
The figures, shared first with Fox News, include a large $19.1 million haul in March alone, which the NRCC said beat its previous off-election year record by $3.6 million.
The committee highlighted that it had $29.7 million cash on hand as of the end of last month, which it says is a 57% increase over the amount of money the NRCC had in the bank at the same point in the last election cycle.
The committee also noted that it has no debt and that its average grassroots donation was $32.70. Its record haul was aided by $5.3 million from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and $3.5 million from House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
The NRCC's counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), has yet to report its 2021 first-quarter fundraising figures. The DCCC raised a combined $18.5 million in January and February. The committee reported $25.9 million cash on hand as of the end of February but also had $11 million in debt to pay off.
The GOP controlled the House for eight years before losing the majority in the chamber in the 2018 midterms. But Republicans defied expectations and took a big bite out of the Democrats' majority in last November's elections and only need to flip five seats in 2022 to regain control of the chamber.
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And they have history on their side: In modern times, the party that controls the White House traditionally loses roughly 25 House seats in midterm elections.
In the past four decades, only Presidents Bill Clinton in 1998 and George W. Bush in 2002 saw their parties gain House seats in midterm elections.
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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