NRCC raises roughly $17 million at annual dinner featuring Trump

The GOP’s House campaign arm raked in about $17 million at a fundraiser headlined by former President Trump earlier this month, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) held its annual fundraising dinner on Nov. 8 in Tampa, Fla. Trump served as the keynote speaker for the event, during which he used his speech to take credit for Virginia Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin’s (R) victory and rail against GOP lawmakers who voted for a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package championed by President Biden.

The staggering one-night fundraising haul, which was first reported by Fox News, is a major get for the NRCC, which is gearing up for an aggressive midterm election effort to recapture control of the House after roughly three years in the minority. 

The group is targeting a total of 70 House seats held by Democrats in next year’s elections, though Republicans need to net only five seats to win back the party’s majority in the lower chamber. 

Democrats, meanwhile, are facing strong headwinds heading into the 2022 midterms. For one, the party of a new president tends to lose ground in Congress in midterm elections, and recent polling shows Biden’s approval rating underwater.

What’s more, the GOP currently holds a heavy edge in the decennial redistricting process, given the party’s control over state legislatures in a handful of key states. 

Still, the NRCC’s Democratic counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), has raised impressive sums of money this year, as well. In October, the DCCC pulled in nearly $11.7 million — almost $2 million more than the NRCC raised in the same time frame.