Never Trump Republicans call on RNC to stop funding Trump

by Ben Kamisar and Jonathan Easley - 08/11/16 2:12 PM ET

A group of prominent Never Trump Republicans is calling on the Republican National Committee (RNC) to divert resources from presidential nominee Donald Trump and instead shore up efforts to maintain GOP majorities in Congress.

Many of the signers are former RNC staffers and campaign hands who have also become some of the more vocal anti-Trump members of the GOP.

{mosads}”Given the catastrophic impact that Donald Trump’s losing presidential campaign will have on down-ballot Senate and House races, we urge you to immediately suspend all discretionary RNC support for Trump and focus the entirety of the RNC’s available resources on preserving the GOP’s congressional majorities,” a draft of the letter says.

“Donald Trump’s divisiveness, recklessness, incompetence, and record-breaking unpopularity risk turning this election into a Democratic landslide, and only the immediate shift of all available RNC resources to vulnerable Senate and House races will prevent the GOP from drowning with a Trump-emblazoned anchor around its neck.”

The letter was first reported by Politico. As of Thursday, more than 70 people have signed the letter, which will be sent next week.

Andrew Weinstein, a former spokesman for then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and a communications staffer on Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign, is helping to spearhead the letter, which lists a host of grievances against Trump.

It specifically notes Trump’s attacks on a Gold Star family; his comment that he hopes Russia hacked Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s emails; his controversial remark that Second Amendment supporters could fight back against Clinton; his refusal to release his tax returns; and his repeated “lying about scores of issues, large and small.”

More than 10 signers are former RNC staffers, including Mindy Finn, Beth Miller, B. Jay Cooper and Patrick Ruffini.

Former Sen. Gordon Humphrey (N.H.) and former Reps. Chris Shays (Conn.), Mickey Edwards (Okla.), Tom Coleman (Mo.) and Vin Weber (Minn.) have all signed.

Humphrey has been a vocal critic of Trump, telling the New Hampshire Union Leader this week that the GOP should dump Trump and replace him with “someone of sound mind.”

He also helped to organize the signatures needed at last month’s Republican National Convention to force a roll call vote as a show of protest to Trump.

Shays has endorsed Clinton and was noted in a release this week from the Clinton campaign that touted endorsements from Republicans and independents.

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