Senate GOP super PAC, nonprofit raise record haul for first half of year

The top Senate Republican super PAC and its affiliated nonprofit raised nearly $25 million in the first six months of 2021 and are entering the second half of the year with more than $33.6 million in combined cash on hand. 

Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), the super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), pulled in more than $4.4 million in the first half of the year, fundraising numbers shared with The Hill show. 

That’s less than the nearly $5.5 million it raised in the first six months of 2019 and nearly $4 million less than the $8.26 million it raised in the first half of 2017, though the group attributed the drop-off to two Senate runoff elections in Georgia that ran into January of this year.

Meanwhile, One Nation, the political nonprofit affiliated with SLF, saw a massive surge in fundraising, pulling in more than $20.4 million in the first half of 2021 and ending June with more than $27 million in the bank. 

Together, SLF and One Nation are heading into the last six months of the year with a combined $33.6 million in cash on hand, giving the two groups their most funds in the first half of an off-year to date.

The fundraising numbers were first reported on Tuesday by Punchbowl News. 

The groups touted the massive fundraising hauls as a sign of Republican enthusiasm ahead of 2022, when the party will seek to reclaim its majorities in the House and Senate. 

The GOP needs to gain only one seat in the upper chamber next year to recapture control, though Republicans are also defending a handful of seats in competitive states like North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

“This record-breaking haul reflects growing concern over the Democrats’ economically risky agenda, and it gives us the firepower we need to push back against it,” Steven Law, the president of SLF and One Nation, said.