| | | | |  | | By Madison Fernandez | | | As the field for the White House starts to grow, we have our first peek inside presidential hopefuls’ war chests. There’s still more than 560 days until the 2024 election (who’s counting?) but the jockeying — both behind-the-scenes and in public on the campaign trail and TV screens — is already starting. And to do all of that, you need to have money. Here’s what we learned from presidential candidates’ FEC reports, which cover the beginning of the year through March 31. — Donald Trump: The former president’s campaign raised over $14.4 million in the first quarter of the year, with a surge in fundraising after his March announcement that he anticipated getting arrested. (There’s even more money flowing into the Trump operation when looking at his joint fundraising committee and other political groups.) Despite that indictment boost, his first-quarter numbers still trail where he was at the same time during his 2019 reelection bid, POLITICO’s Jessica Piper points out. Trump started April with $13.9 million on hand. — Nikki Haley: Haley raised around $8.3 million between her campaign, joint fundraising committee and leadership PAC. That comes after her campaign announced she raised $11 million among those entities — a number they appeared to reach by double-counting transfers between her committees. Her campaign committee had around $4 million in the bank at the end of the quarter. — Vivek Ramaswamy: Ramaswamy brought in $11.4 million last quarter — much of that coming from himself. The wealthy biotech entrepreneur has put more than $10 million into his campaign so far, including a loan of $250,000 in February and a $10 million loan at the beginning of March. He ended March with $9.4 million on hand. Republican Esther Joy King, who lost in her bid for IL-17 last year, donated $2,000 through her campaign committee. Pennsylvania Republican Kathy Barnette, who unsuccessfully mounted a Senate bid in 2022, also donated $2,000 through her campaign committee, and Be Better America PAC, which is affiliated with Barnette, donated $3,300. (Ramaswamy has used Barnette for political consulting, too.) — Perry Johnson: Most of the Michigan entrepreneur’s Q1 haul came from himself. Johnson brought in $3.8 million, $3.4 million of which came from a personal loan to the campaign. He had $2 million in his coffers at the end of the quarter. — Tim Scott: The South Carolina senator announced his presidential exploratory committee last week, meaning we won’t get a peek into those financials until July. But his Senate filing shows $1.6 million raised and $21.9 million on hand — money that can easily be transferred to his presidential committee. — Marianne Williamson: Williamson is the only declared Democrat whose filing we have for Q1. She raised $773,000 and had $240,000 on hand. Williamson loaned herself $100,000. It’ll be another three months until we see updated numbers from these campaigns — and potentially some others. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this month filed to run for the Democratic nomination, after the close of books for Q1. The same goes for former Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who launched his bid in early April. It’s possible that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will throw his hat in the ring at that point, as the state legislature session ends in May. And of course, there’s a big question mark over the timing of President Joe Biden’s announcement. How soon “relatively soon” is, as Biden told reporters on the tail-end of last week’s Ireland trip, we’ll just have to wait and see. Happy Monday. Reach me at mfernandez@politico.com and @madfernandez616. Days until the Kentucky primary: 29 Days until the Mississippi primary: 113 Days until the Louisiana primary: 180 Days until the 2023 election: 204 Days until the 2024 election: 568
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| | TRAIL MIX — It’s been a busy past few days on the trail. Here’s what some prospective presidential hopefuls were up to. … On abortion: DeSantis signed a six-week abortion bill on Thursday night. Just a few hours later, abortion was merely a passing reference in his speech at conservative Christian college Liberty University. Instead, he “attacked woke ideology, highlighted his ongoing fight with Disney, mentioned his wife’s battle with cancer and touted his electability.” Read more from POLITICO’s Ekaterina Pechenkina. … On retail politics: “DeSantis might have a big enough reputation that he can skip over the small rooms other presidential contenders have to work. But he’s trying to walk the walk in this small state that prides itself on putting politicians through the retail-politics wringer,” POLITICO’s Lisa Kashinsky writes from Manchester, New Hampshire. DeSantis headlined a sold-out 500-person state party dinner on Friday, bringing in a record $382,000. … On guns: The National Rifle Association’s annual leadership summit took place on Friday against the backdrop of recent mass shootings in Kentucky and Tennessee. A host of Republican presidential hopefuls spoke at the summit, offering up different explanations for the shootings — including mental health and immigration. It was also the first time both Pence and Trump were featured on the same stage since they left office. The split screen: Trump earned a standing ovation, while Pence was greeted with boos. (Pence did win the crowd over at the end and got a standing ovation.) … On the future of the party: “Donald Trump stood before Republican National Committee donors on Saturday to make his case for a return to the White House, arguing that he deserves another chance to finish a dramatic party transformation that he started nearly eight years ago,” POLITICO’s Natalie Allison writes from Nashville. “Instead of devoting time in his speech to decry voting machines or allege election officials to be corrupt, Trump touted accomplishments from his four years in office and made sweeping pledges for what he will do if elected again.” The party’s donors are still weighing whether there’s a viable alternative to Trump, but many told Natalie that there is no consensus on the matter. And it’s not clear there’s another preferred candidate. Top Republican donor Thomas Peterffy told the Financial Times’ Madison Darbyshire that he and some others he knows are holding off on backing DeSantis, who’s the closest behind Trump in polling, due to his positions on issues like abortion. IT’S A NO FROM ME — Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is not running for president. “This isn’t our moment,” he told Fox News’ Bret Baier on Friday. “This isn’t the time for us to seek elected office.” But he did leave the door open for a run in a future cycle.
| | Q1 TABS — Here are some other Q1 highlights from over the weekend: — AZ-Sen: Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego outraised independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, Jessica reports. Several prominent Republican donors and Wall Street sources contributed to Sinema’s $2.1 million haul. She hasn’t said if she’s running for reelection, but Gallego, who announced his Senate bid earlier this year, raised over $3.7 million. — WV-Sen: Republican Rep. Alex Mooney outraised Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who hasn’t yet announced if he’s running for reelection. Mooney, who is the only prominent Republican in the race so far, raised $505,000 and had $1.4 million on hand. Manchin brought in over $370,000, but his $9.7 million war chest is much larger than Mooney’s. — MD-Sen: Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin raised $15,000 last quarter, one of the lowest hauls for a Senate incumbent. That comes amid the question of if he’s running for reelection, which he has not declared. He had $995,000 on hand. — NY-03: Rep. George Santos’ (R-N.Y.) campaign lost money in Q1. He raised just over $5,000 and refunded around $8,000. Santos had $25,000 on hand at the end of the quarter, and has $715,000 in debts and obligations. Read more from Jessica and Sam Stein. — House Battleground: Rep. Pat Ryan’s (D-N.Y.) $1.2 million haul was the most of any incumbent Democrat or Republican on the NRCC or DCCC target lists. He had around $941,000 on hand. Republican Reps. Michelle Steel (Calif.), Juan Ciscomani (Ariz.) and Ken Calvert (Calif.) each raised over $1 million as well. What stood out to you in the reports? Let us know. DISCLOSURE ALERT — Trump filed a personal financial disclosure with the FEC on Friday. The documents “revealed lower-than-expected values on his social media company, two additional hefty bank loans and a new income stream for former first lady Melania Trump,” The New York Times reports.
| | FIRST IN SCORE — MoveOn is launching a campaign to target the 18 Republicans in districts Biden won in 2020. The progressive group is calling them the “Complicit Caucus” and tying them to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) for voting along with her record. MoveOn is planning to spend seven figures over the next year on the paid media campaign, along with organizing in the districts and polling. The campaign will continue through the 2024 election. “The American people did not vote for Marjorie Taylor Greene to run this country,” MoveOn executive director Rahna Epting told Score. “They voted for supposedly these members of Congress that said they're going to uphold democracy and govern effectively.” Some of the targeted Republicans in the campaign, like Reps. George Santos and David Schweikert (Ariz.), have high name recognition nationally or already have opponents lining up to face them. But with it being early in the cycle, much of the field has not formed. Epting said that the campaign is starting early to “make these people famous” and show their actions to voters before the 2024 cycle picks up. “I hope people … understand that the person they voted for to represent them in office is not doing their job, and that in fact, they’re kowtowing to the extremists in their party,” she said. NICE FOR WHAT — At a recent secret gathering of Arizona Republican officials and potential candidates in the state’s Senate race, Arizona Republican Party Chair Jeff DeWit urged “candidates to avoid destructive personal attacks on one another in a bid to avoid a rerun of 2022, when nearly every Republican running for statewide office lost following toxic primaries,” The Washington Post’s Liz Goodwin and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez write. But one potential candidate wasn’t there: Kari Lake, who lost her bid for governor last year and is mulling a Senate run. “Her absence laid bare the limited power the party apparatus has in battleground states like Arizona to stave off both damaging primary battles and candidates whom they see as having less general election appeal.”
| | | | GO INSIDE THE 2023 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO is proud to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider" newsletter featuring exclusive coverage, insider nuggets and unparalleled insights from the 2023 Global Conference, which will convene leaders in health, finance, politics, philanthropy and entertainment from April 30-May 3. This year’s theme, Advancing a Thriving World, will challenge and inspire attendees to lean into building an optimistic coalition capable of tackling the issues and inequities we collectively face. Don’t miss a thing — subscribe today for a front row seat. | | | | | | | | | — Trump is leading in a GOP presidential primary in Georgia, a poll conducted by University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs finds. Trump earns 51 percent of support, followed by DeSantis with 30 percent. Other candidates received support in the single-digits (983 likely Republican voters, April 2-7 and 10-12, MoE +/- 3.1 percentage points). — “Biden’s poll numbers look grim as he preps for reelection bid,” by POLITICO’s Steve Shepard.
| | — MAGA, Inc., the super PAC boosting Trump’s presidential bid, has its sights set on DeSantis. The group released an ad on Friday that hits DeSantis on Social Security — oh, and him allegedly eating pudding with his fingers. (DeSantis has said he doesn’t remember doing that.) — Never Back Down, the group backing a potential DeSantis presidential run, put out its first TV ad on “Fox News Sunday,” Axios’ Mike Allen reports. “Donald Trump is being attacked by a Democrat prosecutor in New York. So why is he spending millions attacking the Republican governor of Florida?” the narrator says before hitting Trump on Social Security. (This isn’t the first time the Trump indictment has been spotlighted in an ad.) The group also placed $3.5 million on broadcast and cable from Monday through Sunday, per AdImpact. They’ll be running in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina and on national networks, including CNBC, Fox Business Network, Fox News and Newsmax. CODA — QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Listen, I didn’t write a book, and I’m not in Iowa or New Hampshire or South Carolina.” (Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin on his presidential aspirations) | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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