Anti-establishment conservative PAC weighs in on Senate primaries
Tags: Us Senate, Republicans, Politics, 2020, Elections

Anti-establishment conservative PAC weighs in on Senate primaries

By Jessica Piper

BIRMINGHAM, AL — DECEMBER 13: Senator-elect Doug Jones (D-AL) speaks during a December 13, 2017 in Birmingham, Alabama. Jones stated that US President Donald Trump called him today to congratulate him on his victory. (Photo by Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images)

A conservative PAC known for challenging establishment Republicans from the right is backing several Senate candidates in three open primaries that will likely be closely watched in the coming year.

The Senate Conservatives Fund has already spent more than $176,000 on independent expenditures supporting businessman John James, state Rep. Arnold Mooney and retired General Don Bolduc, three Republicans aiming to take on vulnerable Democratic senators in 2020.

James, who narrowly lost a Senate race in 2018, is the only major candidate currently challenging Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), while Mooney and Bolduc will compete in primaries for the chance to take on Sens. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), respectively. All three seats are Republican targets next year as the party fights to keep its Senate majority.

Mooney, who describes himself as “a conservative and an outsider,” is competing in a crowded Alabama primary that includes Judge Roy Moore, who lost to Jones in a 2017 special election. Also in the race are former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville, Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.) and Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill.

Mooney raised $298,314 through the end of the second quarter, putting him well behind both Byrne and Tuberville but significantly ahead of Moore, who raised less than $17,000. Mooney has picked up endorsements from Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).

The Senate Conservatives Fund, which backed Moore over incumbent Sen. Luther Strange during a primary runoff in 2017, has dropped more than $87,000 in independent expenditures to support Mooney so far, most of which has gone to direct mail and email marketing. It also gave Mooney’s campaign $10,000.

The eventual winner of the Alabama primary will have to raise significant cash to catch up with Jones. The Democratic incumbent continues to receive support from his party nationally and has already raised more than $3.6 million this year.

In New Hampshire, Bolduc is currently in a three-way primary with state Rep. Bill O’Brien and army veteran Corky Messner. A potential wildcard in the race later this fall is President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who the president all but endorsed at a Manchester, N.H., rally earlier this month.

Lewandoski told the Washington Examiner last week that he would wait to see other candidates’ third-quarter fundraising numbers before deciding on his own run. None of the Republican Senate candidates in New Hampshire formally filed to run until July, so early fundraising numbers are not yet available for the race. The Senate Conservatives Fund has dished out $26,239 on independent expenditures supporting Bolduc so far.

Shaheen, who was first elected in 2008, had a comfortable $2.8 million cash on hand as of June 30.

The Senate Conservatives Fund, founded by former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) in 2008, has often been at odds with mainstream Republican leadership in recent primary elections. A nonconnected PAC, it is allowed to carry out independent expenditures and make limited contributions to federal candidates.

Much of the antagonism with national Republicans occurred under the leadership of Ken Cuccinelli, who was the PAC’s president from 2014 until he was named acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services this past June. The former Virginia attorney general was appointed acting director — rather than offered the position permanently — in part because he faced little chance of Senate confirmation given the PAC’s history of challenging establishment senators.

In 2017, the Senate Conservatives Fund briefly backed Brooks during the Republican primary to replace former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. After Brooks was eliminated in the first round of the primary, the PAC backed Moore in his runoff against Strange, who had been appointed to fill Sessions’ seat and had the backing of establishment Republicans. Moore ultimately won the runoff but fell in the general election amid allegations of predatory behavior toward teenage girls.

In 2014, the PAC backed Matt Bevin in his primary challenge to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell won the primary handedly with 60 percent of the vote, and Bevin was elected governor of Kentucky the following year.

This cycle, the Senate Conservatives Fund has raised nearly $948,534 so far. The PAC had $488,963 in cash on hand at the end of July.