'Defeat MAGA': Anti-Trump conservatives to spend $100 million against GOP in midterms

U.S. President Donald Trump attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 26, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

A prominent group of anti-Trump former Republicans are spending big to combat President Donald Trump and his allies in Congress, pouring support into Democratic candidates to "defeat MAGA," according to a new Politico report.

The move comes from the Save America Movement organization, a political action committee (PAC) co-founded by former moderate Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who also helped found The Lincoln Project, another anti-Trump PAC. While the Lincoln Project is specifically directed at Trump, the Save America Movement is more directly focused on opposing the broader Republican Party under his leadership.

To this end, coming off of bruising electoral losses for the GOP in recent off-year elections, the PAC has now launched an effort to "pour up to $100 million into as many as 60 GOP-controlled House seats ahead of the midterms," Politico explained. This will be the PAC's first attempt at direct electoral advocacy, "after it has spent significant capital protesting [Trump's] return to office, which it deems a fundamental threat to American freedoms."

“The Save America Movement was started with the express mission of defeating MAGA, but the electoral side, particularly the 2026 elections, are absolutely critical to that mission,” Mary Corcoran, co-founder and executive director for the PAC, said in a statement to Politico.

The parties in opposition to the sitting president are typically favored in midterm races, but the most recent off-year elections have given Democrats even more reason to expect a strong showing in 2026. Earlier last month, the likes of Mikie Sherill in New Jersey, Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Zohran Mamdani in New York City saw significant margins of victory over their GOP and independent opponents, and crucially saw major wins with key demographics that swung for Trump in 2024. While the party lost a recent Tennessee special election for a vacant House seat, the loss by only 9 points in a district Trump won by 22 also signaled a major shift in voter support away from Republicans.

The Save America Movement already has a list of 10 House seats it is hoping to pour fundraising dollars into for 2026, "spanning Alaska to Florida," according to a memo shared with Politico.

"The seats the group is already targeting range from battleground areas like WI-03 — where Democrat Rebecca Cooke is making another run at unseating GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden after losing narrowly last year — to the solid red MN-08, where GOP Rep. Pete Stauber won by 17 points in 2024," Politico explained.

When pressed about the feasibility of the fundraising goal, Corcoran shared with the outlet, "what I can tell you is that the response from donors has been very positive.”

The PAC is also looking to beat Republicans at their own game and try to reach voters early, much earlier than the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee typically does for midterm races.

“Republicans have always been really good about speaking to voters early,” Corcoran explained. “We need to fill that gap and ensure by the time the candidates are actually campaigning, the voters already have a perspective in their minds about how they’re going to vote.”

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