Grifting to Loss

I don’t need to write a ton here. I just want to direct you to this piece in the Wall Street Journal. Blake Masters is losing Arizona, and it should be winnable.

But the reality is that Peter Thiel and Donald Trump went to bat for Masters in a crowded primary, poured millions in to get him the nomination, and they’ve abandoned him since. Thiel, only under pressure from Rick Scott and Mitch McConnell, is allegedly going to commit more money.

There are horror stories about GOP fundraising this cycle. The problem is not that Republican donors are not giving. The problem is the small dollar donors are pouring money into Donald Trump’s Super PAC presuming that’s the PAC to win back Washington.

But Trump’s PAC is barely spending anything on anyone except Trump.

As Kim Strassel notes,

Only where’s the would-be kingmaker [Thiel] now? Sitting in his counting house, the doors firmly locked. Mr. Thiel has abandoned the Arizona race, as well as the Ohio Senate candidate he spent $15 million to nominate, J.D. Vance. Mr. Trump is meanwhile using this cycle to hoover up grassroots donations that might otherwise go to competitive midterm candidates and so far refuses to commit any of the estimated $99 million in a leadership PAC to his endorsees. The Lucys have pulled the football, leaving the GOP’s Arizona project to fall on its back.

That’s right. $99 million is parked on the sidelines. A lot of that is grassroots donor dollars hoarded by the former President instead of spent on those whom he endorsed.

The GOP isn’t running out of money to spend. It’s got the money. It’s just the operations that got the money won’t spend it.

Live by grift. Die by grift.