The GOP’s richest contributors and largest fundraisers will be in Palm Beach, Florida this weekend for a donor refuge from the Republican National Committee (RNC) that also attracts more than half a dozen potential 2024 presidential candidates.
Among those expected to turn up and mingle with some of the Republican Party’s biggest brokers and rainmakers – according to various sources – is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, South Dakota Government, Kristi Noem, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sens. of Arkansas and Rick Scott (the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee) and Marco Rubio of Florida. All six politicians are considered potentially hopefuls in the next race for the Republican presidential candidate.
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Also speaking at the conference is another GOP politician who is flirting with a 2024 White House administration – former President Trump.
The two-day conference will be held at the Four Seasons Resort in Palm Beach – but on Saturday night it will move about 4 miles north to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Resort, where the former president will address the participants.
Former United States President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Resort in Palm Beach, Fla., February 8, 2021. (REUTERS / Marco Bello)
The starting line for the next presidential race is still more than a year and a half away – after the midterm elections in 2022 – but this weekend’s donor refuge is the third event, or a cow call, all this year of potential hope from the IDP. White House, which follows the RNC’s winter meeting in January and the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February. And the RNC’s committee member meeting in Dallas, Texas, in a few weeks’ time could see a similar collection of potential 2024 candidates.
“This is Campaign 101,” Henry Barbour, a longtime RNC committee member from Mississippi, told Fox News. “If you’re thinking of running in ’24, you want to meet not only the most important donors, but also the most important fundraisers, because so many of these donors can raise money beyond what they can personally do. ‘
Barbour added that “the same goes for the members of the RNC committee that will meet in Dallas in a few weeks. These are the activists and grassroots leaders of the party in their states. So these are important people to meet when you think about it. ’24. “
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While the appearance by the former president as well as the other possible hopeful White House attention will draw attention, those involved in planning the retreat say that the main purpose of the conference is to let the RNC’s plan to leave the party growth and how donors should share with donors. can be part of that mission. The IDP, which is out of control in both the White House and Congress, aims to win back majorities in the House and Senate in the 2022 midterm elections.
The pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago on Saturday also illustrates to some extent the continued swing that Trump is holding over the party, more than two months after his departure from the White House. And it’s not good with some in the donor class. A conference participant who spoke to Fox News but asked not to be quoted expressed concerns about the former president’s tremendous influence.
Barbour, who does not attend the resort, remarked that ‘it’s a big party. You have some donors who think that Trump’s influence is not big enough, and we have some donors who think that Trump’s influence is too much. ‘
Former President Trump Speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Sunday, February 28, 2021, in Orlando, Florida (AP Photo / John Raoux)
((AP Photo / John Raoux))
“The party is bigger than any candidate. It’s clear that Donald Trump is a great force in the Republican Party, but I think the key for us to move forward and win elections, especially national elections, is to concentrate on our conservative principles and ideas and we a party that practices the politics of addition rather than division, ‘he stressed.
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Another concern expressed is Trump’s ability after the presidency and whether it is a competitive threat to the RNC’s fundraising. Fox News has confirmed that Save America, the former president’s leader PAC, has a massive $ 85 million in cash on hand.
While prospective presidential candidates – like Trump – always raise money for their political agenda, Barbour noted that ‘the difference is that Trump is a former president’, which puts the IDP in uncapped waters.
The RNC’s refuge is the only few days in town.
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint are in Mar-a-Lago and are hosting a two-day convention for their newly formed nonprofit, the Conservative Partnership Institute.
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And the three-day Save America Summit kicked off Thursday. The conference, hosted by pro-Trump organization Women for America First, is being held at the former president’s Doral Golf Club and Resort in Miami.
As Fox News reported earlier this week, the fighting Rep. Matt Gaetz speaks at a conference Friday night. This will probably be the first time Gaetz will speak in front of a live audience since reports surfaced last week that the FBI had been investigating him since last summer amid allegations that he had sex with a minor and paid for sex with women of legal age. The congressman denied the allegations, including during an interview with Fox News last week.
Among the Conservative politicians is also Georgia spokeswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was removed by the House Democratic majority from her committee mandates for her social media posts in the past in support of conspiracy theories. Greene will introduce Gaetz during the conference.
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Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky – a 2016 GOP presidential candidate likely to have national ambitions again in 2024 – and representatives Louie Gohmert of Texas and Kat Cammack of Florida are among the other Conservatives speaking at the event. There is speculation – but no confirmation – that Trump will appear at the top.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.