The future of the Republican Party is in flux. With former President Donald Trump still a looming presence in the party, a powerful network of donors and activist groups led by conservative billionaire Charles Koch is mounting a direct challenge to the former president’s campaign for the 2024 nomination.
In a memo released on Sunday, Emily Seidel, chief executive of the network’s flagship group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), wrote: “The best thing for the country would be to have a president in 2025 who represents a new chapter.” Seidel went on to state that “very few people are in a position to do something about it. AFP is. Now is the time to rise to the occasion.”
The move marks the most notable example to date of an overt and coordinated effort from within conservative circles to stop Trump from winning the GOP nomination for a third straight presidential election. While the memo didn’t name a spending target, AFP’s affiliated super PAC spent more than $69 million in the 2022 cycle, according to Federal Election Commission disclosures.
The Koch network now joins the Club for Growth and several of the party’s biggest individual donors in signaling their opposition to Trump’s current campaign. The network plans to endorse a single candidate by the end of this summer, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
The memo expressed frustration with the direction of American politics in the Trump era. “The Republican Party is nominating bad candidates who are advocating for things that go against core American principles. And the American people are rejecting them,” Seidel wrote. “If we want better candidates, we’ve got to get involved in elections earlier and in more primaries.”
The memo indicated that AFP will get involved earlier and more aggressively in congressional races, in addition to the presidential primary. The plan was unveiled to donors this weekend at a meeting of the Koch network in the resort city of Palm Springs, Calif.
The future of the Republican Party is up for grabs. With former President Donald Trump still a looming presence in the party, a powerful network of donors and activist groups led by conservative billionaire Charles Koch is mounting a direct challenge to the former president’s campaign for the 2024 nomination.
In a memo released on Sunday, Emily Seidel, chief executive of the network’s flagship group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), wrote: “The best thing for the country would be to have a president in 2025 who represents a new chapter.” Seidel went on to state that “very few people are in a position to do something about it. AFP is. Now is the time to rise to the occasion.”
This move represents a major shift in the Republican Party. The Koch network joins the Club for Growth and several of the party’s biggest individual donors in signaling their opposition to Trump’s current campaign. The network plans to endorse a single candidate by the end of this summer, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
The memo expressed frustration with the direction of American politics in the Trump era. “The Republican Party is nominating bad candidates who are advocating for things that go against core American principles. And the American people are rejecting them,” Seidel wrote. “If we want better candidates, we’ve got to get involved in elections earlier and in more primaries.”
The memo indicated that AFP will get involved earlier and more aggressively in congressional races, in addition to the presidential primary. The plan was unveiled to donors this weekend at a meeting of the Koch network in the resort city of Palm Springs, Calif. Elected officials present included Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Rep. Andrew Ogles (R-Tenn.), whose campaigns the AFP super PAC supported in 2022.
The Koch network’s move to challenge Trump marks an escalation of a long-simmering feud over the GOP’s core policy commitments. The network plans to marshal resources, including a million grass-roots activists across all 50 states, data targeting technology known as i360, and the Latino outreach organization Libre. The memo said that in last year’s races, AFP and its affiliated super PAC knocked on more than 7 million doors, delivered more than 100 million pieces of mail and contacted millions more voters by phone and email.
The future of the Republican Party is in flux. With the Koch network taking an active role in challenging the Trump campaign and seeking to support a new chapter in the party, the next few months are sure to be interesting. It remains to be seen how the Koch network will follow through on its ambitious plans to influence primaries, but one thing is for sure – the Republican Party is in for a major shakeup.
Source: www.washingtonpost.com