'Incoming': McConnell warns Senate Republicans not to support Josh Hawley’s campaign donations bill
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and the ultra-MAGA Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) have had plenty of disagreements.
Hawley is very much a Trump loyalist, while there is a considerable amount of bad blood between Trump and McConnell. Hawley opposes military aid to Ukraine, whereas Ukraine is one area in which McConnell and President Joe Biden — for all their differences — have some common ground.
Another source of tension between McConnell and Hawley is the Ending Corporate Influence on Elections Act of 2023, which was sponsored by Hawley and would ban publicly traded companies from making donations to super-PACs like the McConnell-associated Senate Leadership Fund. Hawley's bill is designed to undermine the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision — a controversial, hotly debated ruling that equated political donations with "speech."
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Hawley's bill is a rare example of the far-right Missouri senator having anything in common with Democrats. And McConnell is warning Senate Republicans that they could face an "incoming" if they support Hawley's bill.
CNN's Manu Raju reports, "McConnell has long been a chief opponent of tighter campaign finance restrictions…. According to a list of senators obtained by CNN, McConnell singled out a number of lawmakers who benefited from his outside group over the last three cycles: Mike Braun of Indiana, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Susan Collins of Maine, Steve Daines of Montana, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Katie Britt of Alabama, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Ted Budd of North Carolina, J.D. Vance of Ohio and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin."
Raju adds, "In 2018, Hawley benefited from more than $20 million from McConnell's group."
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CNN's full report is available at this link.
