Swing state Republicans bleed donors and cash over Trump's false election claims
By Tim Reid and Nathan Layne
(Reuters) — Real estate mogul Ron Weiser has been one of the biggest donors to the Michigan Republican Party, giving $4.5 million in the recent midterm election cycle. But no more.
Weiser, former chair of the party, has halted his funding, citing concerns about the organization's stewardship. He says he doesn't agree with Republicans who promote falsehoods about election results and insists it's «ludicrous» to claim Donald Trump, who lost Michigan by 154,000 votes in 2020, carried the state.
«I question whether the state party has the necessary expertise to spend the money well,» he said.
The withdrawal of bankrollers like Weiser reflects the high price Republicans in the battleground states of Michigan and Arizona are paying for their full-throated support of former President Trump and his unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
The two parties have hemorrhaged money in recent years, undermining Republican efforts to win back the ultra-competitive states that could determine who wins the White House and control of the U.S. Congress in next November's elections, according to a Reuters review of financial filings, plus interviews with six major donors and three election campaign experts.
Arizona's Republican Party had less than $50,000 in cash reserves in its state and federal bank accounts as of March 31 to spend on overheads such as rent, payroll and political campaign operations, the filings show. At the same point four years ago, it had nearly $770,000.
The Michigan party's federal account had about $116,000 on March 31, a drop from nearly $867,000 two years ago. It has yet to disclose updated financial information for its state account this year.
The two
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