Trump’s antics are costing Republicans money and donors

Donald Trump’s continued claim that the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged is hitting the GOP where it hurts and a recent report from Reuters revealed top donors in Arizona and Michigan have stopped giving money to their state parties because of the former president’s antics. 

Ron Weiser is a Michigan real estate mogul and one the Republican Party’s top donors in the state, having given the GOP $4.5 million in the midterm elections alone. However, Wieser isn’t coughing up any more of his money for the party because of Donald Trump.

Photo credit: Twitter @realronweiser

Weiser once chaired the state party in Michigan but has since left the organization citing concerns about how it's being run according to Reuters, which also noted the real estate tycoon just couldn’t get behind claims that the 2020 election was rigged for Joe Biden. 

"I question whether the state party has the necessary expertise to spend the money well," Weiser told Reuters, and he’s not alone in his thinking. Republican state parties across the country have been suffering for years and Arizona provides a great example. 

The Arizona Republican Party only had about $50,000 in cash reserves at the end of March according to Reuters, which looked at a number of financial filings to put together the pieces of what’s happening to state parties under Trump’s leadership. 

Such a low reserve of cash seems quite worrying but it's far worse when you consider the party had $770,000 at the same time four years ago. It might seem like anecdotal evidence but the same trend was playing out with Michigan’s Republican state party. 

At the end of March, the Michigan Republican Party only had $116,000 in its accounts, which was down significantly from the $867,000 the party had two years ago. All of this financial trouble limits the ability of each party to assist candidates in each state. 

One of the probable reasons why Arizona Republicans have been suffering financially is the costs associated with Trump’s rigged election claims. Reuters review of the party’s financial records showed it paid $300,000 in unspecified legal consulting fees last year.

Even though the costs listed weren’t linked to Trump’s claims, Reuters noted the party paid legal fees to a firm that sought to overturn the election results in Arizona based on a separate campaign filing and what the news organization called legal disclosure. 

“The cobwebs in the bank vault aren’t as important as all the money wasted. The party blew $300,000 on ‘legal consulting,’ much of which focused on overturning Trump’s 2020 defeat,” wrote AZCentral’s political commentator Jon Gabriel. 

“All they have to show for it are a Democratic governor and U.S. Senate delegation,” Gabriel continued. “If they waste their money on Cyber Ninjas and futile lawsuits, they can’t be shocked when donations dry up.”

More than $500,000 was also spent on an election night party as well as a bus tour for Trump-backed candidates in the state, candidates who Reuters said universally backed the idea that the 2020 Presidential Election was stolen, all of which lost in November.

It’s these kinds of antics that have not only persuaded Ron Weiser to halt his donations but also five other mega-Republican donors in Michigan and Arizona. Conspiracies on stolen elections and decisions on policies like abortions are pushing donors away 

"It's too bad we let the right wing of our party take over the operations," said Jim Click, a longtime donor in Arizona who told Reuters he’d only donate directly to candidates now or support them through funding raising groups rather than through the state party.

Another big issue benign caused by the political climate in Arizona is the rise of voters who identify as independents, avoiding both political extremes to form a voting block that has become the state’s largest “party” according to Jon Gabriel

“The reasons for this are pretty obvious. In our angry politics of hot takes and sick burns, a growing number don’t want to be associated with the more, ahem, passionate segments of either party,” Gabriel wrote, a situation that starves both parties of new donors. 

Back in April, Reuters reported that billionaire Republican mega donor Peter Thiel was planning to sit out the 2024 election according to two sources close to him because of issues he had with how Republicans were dealing with “hot-button U.S. cultural issues.”

Thiel reportedly wanted the party to focus on spurring more innovation in the country rather than abortion policy and transgenderism in schools, which is why he allegedly wouldn’t be donating any money despite being an early backer of Donald Trump.