MAGA-backing state GOP parties now being torn apart by infighting and money woes: report
Republican parties in 2024 battleground states are plagued with infighting and fundraising woes — some due to the legal costs incurred by attempts to overturn Donald Trump's 2020 election loss, The Washington Post reported Monday.
“There has been an emphasis on ideological cleansing instead of electioneering,” said former Georgia GOP chairman John Watson. “If those new entrants to the party want to argue the earth is flat and the election is stolen, those are counterproductive to winning elections.”
State parties take the lead when it comes to get-out-the-vote efforts and mobilizing volunteers, but those efforts are in jeopardy thanks to infighting and squabbling over money, according to the report.
More experienced leaders have tried to limit the damage, but the transformation of many GOP parties into promoters of election denial has continued to put pressure on more moderate Republicans, the Post wrote.
"Trump and his team have become deeply involved with state parties, elevating candidates for positions who back him, courting members at his Mar-a-Lago resort home and attacking officials in states who oppose him," The Post's report stated.
"His campaign could be the one to have to make up lost ground from shortfalls in local fundraising and field operations. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said, 'When President Trump is the nominee, everyone will be aligned.'"
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One of those feeling the pressure is Jeff DeWit, who was elected to the role of Arizona state GOP chairman after the previous chair, MAGA firebrand Kelli Ward, left the state party in disarray.
"DeWit has repeatedly asked national Republican groups for financial support that largely has not come," The Post reported. "His appeals to the RNC began in February and have extended through mid-September, including to national and regional staffers and directly to RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, according to people familiar with the discussions."
Read the full report over at The Washington Post.