LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The House Republican Campaign Committee announced on Tuesday that they collected a record $1,000,747.36 in the last campaign fundraising quarter between April and July, beating the Democrats again – this time by almost $75,000. It’s the second quarter that they’ve beat the Democrats in fundraising.

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The money that was raised in the second quarter of 2023 is putting them on a winning streak, having gone past the haul of any majority or minority caucus in the same quarter in past cycles. Adding to their donations from the first quarter, they now have a total of $2.3 million cash on hand compared to the House Democrats who have $1.74 million cash on hand.

Michigan News Source talked with Michigan House Republican leader Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) about the fundraising that has been taking place and he said that 60% of the money in the recent quarter came from individuals which is quite a change from the what has historically been 33%.

In a usual fundraising cycle, Hall said they get “a third from members, so like what I raise and my colleagues giving to the House Republicans, a third from lobbyists and PACs and a third from individual donors. That’s traditionally what we’ve seen. What’s happened here though is that individual donors went from 33% to 60% and that’s why we’re winning.”

He also pointed out that Democrats typically only raise less than 5% of their money from individual donors. He said, “For them, it comes from unions, PACS and lobbyists who want things in the budget, and then their members. And their member’s money comes from the same pots which is unions and PACs who want things in the budget – or policies.”

When discussing the Michigan Republican Party, Hall said, “I keep reading all these stories about how screwed up the Republican Party is in the state.” He said, “We can all concede some of that stuff about the state party” but adds that he is hopeful that they are successful and have a strategy to build a new donor base that’s largely grassroots and more in alignment with Trump. He said if they’re able to develop a new donor base, it would be very helpful.

In the meantime, it looks like the House Republicans are sitting pretty with a strategy that Hall put in place that he said is different than the MIGOP. He said his strategy was to “lock down” all of the reliable Republican donors who have been “investing in the party faithfully for many years.”

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He said, “You look at the traditional Republican donors like the DeVos family, John Kennedy and Matt Moroun…Bobby Schostak and Ron Weiser…so we locked them in in the first quarter and these guys made max-out investments to us which is $48,875.”

He then said the job for the second quarter was to go back to the donors who hadn’t given to the party in years, people who embraced Whitmer or Biden and those who felt disenfranchised and walked away because they didn’t like Trump.

So they contacted former Michigan Governor Snyder and philanthropist Bill Parfet in order to grow their donor base. Hall said that Snyder has really stepped up and has led that effort for them. He added that the “catalyst to this was when the Democrats moved forward with repealing ‘Right to Work.’” Hall said when that happened, “it became very clear to a lot of business people across the state that Gretchen Whitmer was not going to be a moderating force on the Democrat Party.” He said with the governor and the Democrats, who ran as moderates, moving to the left, there are no longer checks and balances in the state. That is what he wants to change by taking back the House.

Hall said, “The only way to bring this back to the center, bring balance, is to take the House back in two years.” He added that Governor Snyder has been working alongside him to convey that message to that group of people who helped get him elected as governor and re-elected. Hall said, “That was a big coalition and what we saw this quarter are those people coming back to the party and investing in us, putting this check and balance on Whitmer, and that’s why we beat the Democrats again in quarter two.”

 Hall said that the House Republicans have raised more money in the minority than being in the majority. He said two years ago, at this time, they had raised $575,000 while the majority. This time, they almost doubled that amount and with a total of $2.3 million cash on hand, there are in the “best place we’ve ever been,” said Hall.

Hall expects that the donations are going to grow and expects to build on the momentum. He said that the major takeaway is that there is a “strong political operation in the Michigan House.” He said, “This is the best strategy for bringing it back to the center because the Michigan House is the only thing on the ballot next year” with the governor’s seat the the Michigan Senate elections not coming around again until 2026.

When asked how the House Republican Campaign Committee plans on spending their money to elect Republicans, he said that they need to embrace early voting and start raising and also spending the money earlier. He said that a key reason they lost the House was not spending early enough. By having more money early on, they can adapt to the early voting.

Hall also said that the money raised for the House Republicans will be going directly to the battleground seats and that they’re making an investment in those ten to twelve seats that will decide the majority. Currently, the Democrats only have two seat advantage in the Michigan House.