Ryan Fundraising Effort Pulls in $10 Million in Second Quarter

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan’s joint fundraising committee said Friday it had raised almost $10 million during the second quarter of 2018 as he and other Republicans try to keep control of the chamber in a challenging environment for their party in November’s elections.

The committee, called Team Ryan, said it has raised more than $70 million so far in the 2017-18 election cycle. More than $45 million has been transferred to the National Republican Congressional Committee, or NRCC, shattering the $25 million goal that was set at the beginning of the election cycle, the committee said.

"Following his retirement announcement, Speaker Ryan has kept his promise to run through the tape and lead political efforts for House Republicans," Kevin Seifert, executive director of Team Ryan, said in a statement. He called Ryan "a valuable asset to members and candidates on the campaign trail, and he will continue to be actively involved in both of those areas through November."

Ryan announced in April that he would not run for re-election.

The speaker has already surpassed the roughly $65 million he raised through the joint fundraising committee for the 2016 elections. The committee is required to file a report no later than Sunday with the Federal Election outlining who gave and how much.

North Carolina to California

During the second quarter, Ryan’s political aides said, he made major fundraising swings through North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, and California.

On Thursday, a super political action committee backing Republican efforts to hold the House reported raising $51 million during the quarter. The Congressional Leadership Fund, which is aligned with Ryan, said it started the peak of the campaign season with $71 million in the bank. Ryan isn’t legally able to directly solicit funds for the super-PAC, but can appear as a special guest at its events.

Republicans are trying to counter a historical a trend in which the party that holds the White House almost always loses seats in midterm elections, and to stave off what polls show is a surge in enthusiasm among Democratic voters.

Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats to win the House. Since the end of World War II, the president’s party has had an average net loss of 26 House seats in the midterms.

To contact the reporter on this story: John McCormick in Chicago at jmccormick16@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, John Harney, Colin Keatinge

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