Panicked Republicans, fearful their presidential nominee Donald Trump already has lost, are shifting funds to close Senate races in a move to keep the upper chamber from falling in Democratic control, Politico reports.
A total of $25 million is being spent in six states by the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC associated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has turned efforts to down ballot races as she appears confident of defeating Trump.
Almost all of the races receiving money are for seats currently held by Republicans that are in danger of falling to Democrats.
The races receiving money:
- Nevada, ($7.5 million) where Republican Joe Heck is in a tight race after pulling his support for Trump.
- Pennsylvania ($5 million) where Republican Sen. Pat Toomey is in a close race for re-election.
- Indiana ($4 million) where the Republican Todd Young is fighting off former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh.
- North Carolina ($3 million)
- New Hampshire ($2 million)
- Missouri ($2 million)
The super PAC's president, Steven Law, told Politico the money came from a variety of donors, but would not identify them. He did say that GOP strategist Karl Rove was involved in helping to raise the $25 million.
The backers, Law said, realize "we're going to take casualties but that we're going to go out guns blazing."
A split in the party over Trump has hurt some Republicans as they struggled with some of the nominee's controversial comments. That has brought about falling support for constituencies who disagreed with their Senate candidate's stance on Trump — which has typically been a distancing from him.
The Senate Leadership Fund, along with two other groups, One Nation and Granite State Solutions, have spent most on Senate races this year, Politico said, with a total of about $165 million. Other groups that back GOP candidates, such as the Koch brothers' network and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce depleted most of their money on early spending.
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