Trump's legal troubles are drowning state Republicans in a financial flood of their own making [View all]

[Nevilledog]

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-state-republicans-fundraising-problems-rcna152436

When infighting in the Colorado Republican Party recently spilled out into the press, the conflict wasn’t over ideologies or values. It was an argument about money; or rather, the lack of it. Like other state Republican parties nationwide, Colorado’s GOP is feeling the pinch of the national party’s Trump-centric fundraising plan. Now those internal party cracks are becoming embarrassing public fractures.

A growing number of state Republican operations are either broke or perilously close to it. Last year, the Minnesota Republican Party reported having only $53 in the bank and over $330,000 in debt. In January, Michigan’s Republicans faced bankruptcy amid a brutal MAGA leadership fight. So much for being the party of fiscal responsibility.

Republican Party chairs know from Democrats’ past examples that starved state operations lead to electoral blowouts at the ballot box. But the Republican National Committee isn’t coming to the rescue with a fire hose of cash, and that gives Democrats a clear roadmap for capitalizing on the GOP’s historic weakness this November.

Republicans can thank Donald Trump for their current financial problems. Trump’s deal with the RNC requires the party to run its donations first through his Save America PAC — which already paid over $50 million toward Trump’s personal legal fees in 2023 alone. That was before RNC co-chair Lara Trump mused about skipping the middleman making the GOP pay Trump’s legal bills directly.

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