The GOP’s Wealthy Carpetbagger Conundrum
In battleground states across the country, there has been an uptick in wealthy carpetbagging candidates jumping into U.S. Senate races. It’s clear that Republicans’ only strategy is to recruit out-of-touch, out-of-staters who will put MAGA extremists and corporate greed ahead of American families.
“Republicans are desperate and their top recruits for key Senate races prove it,” said Tiffany Muller, President of End Citizens United // Let America Vote. “Not only are they relying on election deniers this cycle, but now they’re banking on wealthy carpetbaggers too. It’s only a matter of time before the GOP figures out that this recruiting strategy is destined to fail. We look forward to helping send them back to their home states in November.”
All the out-of-state, out-of-touch Republicans Senate candidates:
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In Pennsylvania, hedge fund multimillionaire David McCormick resides in his $16 million mansion in Connecticut.
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In Montana, wannabe cowboy multimillionaire Tim Sheehy is from Minnesota.
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In Wisconsin, Mitch McConnell’s recruit and multimillionaire bank owner Eric Hovde is from California.
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In Nevada, perennial loser Sam Brown ran unsuccessfully for office in Texas.
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In Michigan, millionaire Florida resident Mike Rogers sold his mansions and had to move back to Michigan last year to launch his campaign.
Coverage of the GOP’s carpetbagger conundrum:
HuffPost: Senate Republicans Have Rich People Problems
Kevin Robillard
2/21/24
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David McCormick, the GOP candidate challenging Pennsylvania’s Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, was blunt when he spoke with students at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire last month.
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“I am spending half my time with donors,” McCormick told students at the Tuck School of Business, according to audio obtained by the progressive news site Heartland Signal, adding: “I’m everywhere across the country, mostly with really wealthy people.”
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Senate financial disclosures indicate McCormick, a former Bush administration official and CEO at Bridgewater Associates, and his wife Dina Powell, a Trump administration official who previously was a partner at Goldman Sachs, have a combined net worth of between $95 million and $196 million.
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The recruitment of the wealthy, an intentional strategy by the GOP, aims to help close the persistent gap in fundraising between Democratic and Republican Senate candidates that has opened up since the 2018 midterm elections. Republicans are counting on them to either fund races with their own pocketbooks, or turn to extensive fundraising networks.
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In McCormick’s case, that has meant attacks on the $16 million mansion he rents in Connecticut; his financial ties to Saudi Arabia and China; and his history of outsourcing and laying off workers ― all part of an effort to paint him as an out-of-touch billionaire.
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Sheehy’s campaign, meanwhile, has already raised $5.3 million, including a $950,000 loan from the candidate. Against Sheehy, they plan to note how his family provided money to help get his business off the ground, how his small government rhetoric conflicts with his company’s reliance on federal dollars, and how his roots are outside the state of Montana.
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Hovde’s campaign launch on Tuesday showcased the likely back-and-forth. The first major challenger to Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Hovde owns a real estate company in Madison and a bank in California. He also spent $5.6 million of his own money on a failed 2012 Senate run.
NBC News: Democrats are trying to turn the GOP’s 2024 Senate contenders into Dr. Oz
Henry J. Gomez
2/15/24
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Once again in Pennsylvania, Democrats have aggressively seized Republican front-runner Dave McCormick’s travels back-and-forth from his mansion in Connecticut.
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In Michigan, Democrats have pushed an unflattering narrative about former Rep. Mike Rogers, who returned home to run for Senate after relocating to Florida.
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And in Montana, they have nicknamed two GOP hopefuls as “Transplant Tim” and “Maryland Matt” — even though both have lived in the state for years.
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Pennsylvania Democratic Party officials routinely circulate stories and details about the mansion, which includes a 1,500-bottle wine cellar, The Associated Press reported last year. They point out how McCormick recently dodged when asked where he spends most of his time.
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Elsewhere, Democrats delighted in sharing a recent article from Michigan Advance headlined, “Where is Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood?”— a report that highlighted the home that Mike Rogers and his wife own in Cape Coral, Florida. The home is valued at nearly $1.7 million, and the couple claimed a $50,000 homestead exemption on their last property tax bill, records show.
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Democrats have scrutinized the Republicans’ ranching bona fides and have mocked Sheehy’s false contention that Montana has more bears than people. This week, the Montana Democratic Party let loose a mobile billboard featuring an ad that frames Sheehy as an “out-of-state tech millionaire … playing cowboy.”
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Allies of Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin already are highlighting the bank he runs in California, where he has been named as one of Orange County’s most influential people. A source close to Hovde rejected the attacks, noting that he is a prominent real estate developer in the state, a “fourth generation Wisconsinite” and “Wisconsin through and through.”
MSNBC: How problematic is the Senate GOP’s ‘carpetbagger’ problem?
Steve Benen
2/21/24
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As is usually the case, Democrats welcomed the multi-millionaire to the race by circulating evidence of Hovde endorsing entitlement cuts, taking a far-right line on abortion rights, and vowing to try to “defund every aspect“ of the Affordable Care Act.
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The pushback comes nearly a year after The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a column with a memorable headline: “Eric Hovde may run for Senate in Wisconsin, but he’s living large in Laguna Beach, California.”
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The same piece added, “Hovde was named by the Orange County Business Journal as one of its 500 most influential people in Orange County in 2020.”
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In Pennsylvania, Republican Senate hopeful David McCormick has been credibly accused of living in Connecticut.
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In Montana, Democrats have been eager to remind locals that Republican Senate hopeful Tim Sheehy is relatively new to the state, having moved there from Minnesota.
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In Nevada, Democrats have been eager to remind locals that Republican Senate hopeful Sam Brown ran for office in Texas.
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In Michigan, Republican Senate hopeful Mike Rogers lived in Michigan, then moved to Florida, then moved back for the campaign.
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