Senate Republicans move cash from purple North Carolina to red Kansas as battle for majority shifts
Trending
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Republicans' top campaign spending organization is pulling back in North Carolina and pouring money into Kansas, a striking shift that shows how the party's plan to keep its majority has turned into an increasingly defensive fight ahead of November’s midterms.
The decision by the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with top Senate Republicans, was disclosed Friday by four people with direct knowledge of the situation who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal strategy.
The shifting resources signal a lack of confidence that Michael Whatley, a former Republican National Committee chairman who was President Donald Trump's choice to run for Senate in North Carolina, can beat Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper.
The moves offer a stark sign of how dramatically the Senate map has shifted just a month before midterm elections that will determine control of Congress. Republicans entered the cycle believing they had more opportunities to flip Democratic-held seats than they had incumbents at serious risk. Now they are dumping money into states where Trump won comfortably two years ago.
Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, a Republican seeking a second term, is facing a challenge from Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton, the leader of the nation's largest United Methodist Church. The Senate Leadership Fund has reserved nearly $8.2 million in advertising to support Marshall over the next month, according to AdImpact, a significant investment in a state Trump won by nearly 16 percentage points in the last presidential election.
Marshall has reserved another $2.3 million and is supported by another $500,000 from other groups. By comparison, Hamilton has reserved just $590,000 in advertising, and he’s receiving only a little more than $556,000 in outside help.
Marshall won his first Senate race by more than 11 percentage points in 2020, the year Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump for president. However, higher fuel costs and other economic concerns have made the state more competitive than Republicans had expected.
"Kansas farmers -- including Republicans -- are devastated by the war in Iran driving up diesel prices," said Jeanna Repass, chair of the Kansas Democratic Party.
Former Kansas Gov. Mike Hayden, a Republican, announced Friday that he was endorsing Hamilton. He is the second Republican former governor of Kansas to back the Democrat, after Bill Graves endorsed Hamilton on Sept. 23.
Lauren French, a spokesperson for the Senate Majority PAC, the Democrats’ spending arm, said in a statement that "Republicans are scrambling because they know" Hamilton can win.
Marshall’s campaign did not provide comment directly responding to the new spending on his behalf.