By THOMAS BEAUMONT and BRIAN SLODYSKO (Associated Press)
Frustrated by the large amount of money going to Democrats, Republicans aiming to retake the Senate have united around candidates with a lot of their own money.
The aim is to offset Democrats’ about 2-to-1 financial advantage, which is a highlight for a party defending twice as many Senate seats as Republicans this year. However, it also risks promoting untested candidates who may not be ready for the intense scrutiny of fiercely contested Senate campaigns.
In Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, GOP Senate candidates are facing pressure to confirm their residency in the state. In Montana, the party’s Senate candidate recently confessed to lying about the circumstances of a gunshot wound he received. And in Ohio, the Republican contender initially presented himself as financially independent but may now be seeking help from donors to repay campaign loans he made.
“One of the challenges they face, as opposed to established politicians, is that established politicians have already gone through the process,” said David Winston, a Republican pollster and senior adviser to House Republicans.
The GOP only needs to gain two seats to take control of the Senate, and the party’s top Democratic targets have their own vulnerabilities that contradict their carefully crafted images as advocates for the working class. These drawbacks include Montana Sen. Jon Tester’s connections to defense industry lobbyists, Sherrod Brown of Ohio repeatedly failing to pay property taxes on time, and Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey spending over $500,000 in campaign funds at his sister’s printing business.
But for Republicans, the situation is delicate because they have been in a similar position before.
Since the emergence of the tea party movement more than ten years ago, Republicans have lost Senate seats they could have won by promoting candidates who were out of touch with mainstream voters critical in statewide contests. The GOP changed tactics this year, playing a more active role in the primary process and identifying candidates who could finance their own campaigns. The party hoped that such candidates would be able to present themselves as political outsiders and be less dependent on a tired donor class.
While this has largely helped Republicans avoid tough primary battles and enter the general election with well-financed candidates, other challenges are emerging.
RESIDENCY QUESTIONS
In Wisconsin, businessman and real estate mogul Eric Hovde is the top contender to challenge two-term Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin. It is uncertain how much Hovde is worth because he hasn't filed a required financial disclosure yet, but he had the ability to lend his campaign $8 million in the first quarter of 2024—and may need to use those resources again to address questions about the extent of his connections to Wisconsin.
He was born in Madison and attended the University of Wisconsin, but he is the CEO of a Utah-based bank, owns a luxurious home in California, and voted absentee from California in 2023 and 2024.
Hovde has made an effort to tell the story of his great-grandparents, who immigrated from Norway to a logging town in northwest Wisconsin. He's running an ad showing his wife, Sharon, looking at a photo album from his time at Madison East High School and UW. He also shared a video of himself breaking through ice on Lake Mendota near his house in Madison.
“He’s completely from Wisconsin,” said campaign spokesman Ben Voelkel. “They are trying to divert attention from every other issue that they don’t want to address.”
Dave McCormick, the Republican Senate nominee in Pennsylvania, has faced similar inquiries. The former hedge fund CEO has a lot of money to support a campaign in one of the most politically divided states. His 2024 net worth, with his wife, was between $61.6 million and $183.6 million. He provided over $14 million to his 2022 Senate campaign, and has invested nearly $2 million into his bid this year.
But he lived and worked in Connecticut, only purchasing a home in Pittsburgh before his unsuccessful Senate run in 2022.
During this year’s campaign, McCormick has admitted to making frequent trips to Connecticut, where his daughter is finishing high school, and renting a luxury home in Westport. McCormick has stated he goes there to see his daughter after a divorce but maintains his main residence in Pennsylvania.
“And, if that’s a political problem, then so be it,” he told reporters in Pennsylvania.
BIOGRAPHICAL QUESTIONS
In Montana, Tim Sheehy has put in over $1.5 million of his own money into his campaign. With a household net worth of between $72.9 million and $255.9 million, he has the ability to tap into much more. The wealthy executive’s military service is a key part of his campaign against Tester, a three-term incumbent in a Republican-friendly state.
But the retired Navy SEAL, who operates an aerial firefighting company, recently admitted to lying to a Glacier National Park ranger on a police report in 2015. He told the ranger he was injured when his personal handgun accidentally fired, but he has since said he was injured in Afghanistan in 2012. He says he didn’t report it to protect fellow service members because it may have come from friendly fire.
Sheehy’s contradictory statements, first reported by The Washington Post, could undermine the potentially engaging profile of a combat veteran who started a Montana company. He has blamed a “liberal smear machine” for using the shooting to help Tester.
In Ohio, meanwhile, concern about Bernie Moreno was growing among Republicans well before he won the party’s Senate nomination last month.
The Associated Press reported in March that in 2008, someone with access to Moreno’s work email account created a profile on an adult website seeking “Men for 1-on-1 sex.” The AP could not definitively confirm that it was created by Moreno. Moreno’s lawyer said a former intern created the account and provided a statement from the intern, Dan Ricci, who said he created the account as “part of a juvenile prank.”
People in the GOP are worried about Moreno's profile and are frustrated about his potential vulnerability in a general election. They are concerned about how to handle the situation because they don't want to upset former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Moreno, and his allies.
REPAYING MONEY OWED
Last year, Moreno, a former car dealership owner, had a net worth of up to $168 million, which gave him enough financial power to challenge Brown. The wording in an invitation to a recent high-dollar fundraiser in Cleveland stood out because of this.
The invitation, obtained by the AP, indicated that the first $3,300 of each contribution would go towards paying off debt, before raising money for his general election campaign.
After winning the March 19 competitive primary, Moreno, like other candidates in similar situations, asked donors to help clear campaign debt. What's unique in Moreno’s case is that he is the only one listed in his recent campaign finance disclosure who would benefit from paying off the campaign’s debt. The records show he lent his campaign $4.5 million in personal and bank loans, which means that the bank would also benefit from receiving interest payments. However, no other debts are listed on the document.
Moreno’s campaign stated that none of the money raised at the event would be used to help him recover his loans. Instead, it would be used to pay off separate debts from the primary campaign, but they did not provide further details about the amounts owed.
Ozzie Palomo, a Republican fundraiser, said that focusing on repaying debt is an unusual approach that could discourage donors.
Palomo stated, “When you invest in a campaign, you hope for a win, not to pay off someone else’s debt.”
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