GOP lawmakers urge RNC to cut ties with Trump

Two GOP lawmakers have joined a group of Never Trump Republicans urging the Republican National Committee to cut Donald Trump loose and focus instead on protecting Republican majorities in the House and Senate.

Reps. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) and Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) have signed on to a letter with 121 other GOP operatives and former elected officials urging the RNC to divert resources away from the top of the ticket.

{mosads}“Given the catastrophic impact that Donald Trump’s losing presidential campaign will have on down-ballot Senate and House races, we urge you to immediately suspend all discretionary RNC support for Trump and focus the entirety of the RNC’s available resources on preserving the GOP’s congressional majorities,” a draft of the letter states.

Rigell has publicly stated his support for Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, while Ribble has said he’s considering voting for the Libertarian ticket.

The RNC has denied several reports that Chairman Reince Priebus has warned Trump to get his act together or risk losing support from the national party and says it is not considering abandoning the nominee at this point.

Trump and the RNC have a joint fundraising agreement in place, although last week Trump mused about how the RNC would suffer if it cut ties with him because he’d stop raising money for the national party.

The billionaire raised more than $80 million last month but has been slow to spend it. Trump is overly reliant on the RNC for staffing in battleground states and has not invested any money on the television airwaves.

Republicans interviewed by The Hill say they don’t expect Priebus or RNC officials would ever publicly run against Trump.

But if the polls continue moving in Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s direction, the race could reach a point where conservative donors begin earmarking money for House and Senate races and the party’s overarching message becomes about electing a GOP Congress to hold Clinton accountable in the White House. 

The letter signed by Rigell and Ribble is being drawn up by Andrew Weinstein, a former spokesman for then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and a communications staffer on Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign.

It has 123 total signatories, including 10 former House or Senate members and 27 former RNC staffers.