Donald Trump’s Most Loyal Lawmakers Matt Gaetz Marjorie Taylor Greene Boebert Cawthorn Are Losing Money
Last year, it was a fundraising party for MAGA Goon Squad. But in 2022, without the stimulus from donors of an insurgency effort, things are headed in the wrong direction.
The first three months of the year grossed more than $275,000 from representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) —the four people of America First, pro-Donald Trump election opponents love fanfare. All told, it was their worst performance to date.
It’s not always like this.
In 2021, that crew saw an incredible comeback, raking in a full-year total of $4.8 million. The only one showing a net loss for the year is Gaetz, who has a campaign account $95,000 off between one drum roll of the bombshell title and high cost relating to an ongoing child sex trafficking investigation. However, the fundraising platform after the uprising was so fertile, he even posted record fundraisers, raising $3.2 million in the first half of 2021.
But last year’s lead campaign also did the most damage this year. That distinction will fall to Greene’s campaign, after bankrolling $5.2 million last year, which began in 2022 with $3 million. While amazing, that total doesn’t exceed the record spending that ultimately led her to leave. $314,000 in the hole. This is Greene’s first negative fundraiser since her election.
The only member of the team that hasn’t lost a quarter is Boebert. Gaetz’s campaign ran in both the second and third quarters of last year, and Cawthorn hasn’t skyrocketed since his multi-million dollar fundraising following the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
After losing another $41,300 since January, the Cawthorn campaign has only kept about $282,000, more than half of its cumulative amount this time last year. And he removed any firepower he might have held on to his other committees, in the process. rank potential allies.
To round up the existing total, Gaetz — a three-term incumbent — has about $1.6 million. Boebert has about $2.2 million. And Greene deposited the whole crew with $3 million in the bank.
It is not immediately clear whether a unified theory can explain the sensation. Each candidate can claim their own recent epidemics.
Cawthorn can’t seem to stop his extravagant spending. Legal and PR bills wiped out Gaetz last year, but have now subsided, allowing him to stick his nose in the water. And Greene seems to have changed this year, discarding what she’s tried and true — and costly—Digital efforts and a lucrative bet on a direct mail campaign instead don’t go out.
While Boebert’s consistency is outstanding, this quarter’s total represents her smallest increase to date. The slim margins can be attributed in large part to the fact that she spent a record $700,000 — hundreds of thousands more than average.
Curiously, more than $470,000 of that money went to “media production” services from Rock Chalk Media, a company owned by former Congressman Jason Chaffetz’s brother, Alex. And while Rock Chalk has always a leading Boebert supplier — Jason Chaffetz support her 2020 main challenge for a GOP incumbent — campaign payments last quarter were huge, half of what it paid the company for all of 2021.
Nor is it immediately clear what kind of productive value money has bought, because Boebert’s Google, Facebookand Twitter Campaign and video ads are no different from face-to-face selfies and no makeup.
But even with those coincidental explanations, the January 6 effect is huge.
The group has never seen contributions like they did in the first months of 2021. Vote denialism, Capitol riots, and President Trump’s subsequent second impeachment triggered the MAGAsphere, and in In the weeks that followed, frustrated right-wing donors threw financial support behind the officials whose voices resonated most with them in the post-Trump period.
Instead, over the past year, they’ve largely relied on rhetoric, outrage bait, and media stunts to keep their name – and hopefully some cash – in the air. onion. And while the controversy seems a winning gimmick for the Goons, it does not always appear, such as with cash flame it was Greene-Gaetz’s “Put America First” fundraising tour last summer.
While some kerfuffles At the end of the past three months, the only team member to have garnered major media traction this quarter was Cawthorn — and that controversy has led to a public shame from Republican congressional leaders.
With the midterms due in November, this seems like a particularly bad time for these Republicans to lose money. But all four MAGA bombers are from Republican counties, and keeping the safe-haven seat usually doesn’t put much strain on incumbent bank accounts.
However, this year could be a little different.
For all four, the multimillion-dollar controversies also brought challenges from within the party. Boebert and Cawthorn face races that can be problematic, and burning pit It’s a Bank account of Cawthorn operation even his own advisors were scratching their heads.
It looks like Cawthorn’s bank funds are earmarked for a slightly slimmer future. Two out-of-state $1,000 donations last quarter were found to be erroneous, and one of the donors told The Daily Beast, likely fraudulent.
