Club for Growth Excludes Trump from Donor Retreat, Invites 6 Potential Candidates

The Club for Growth, a prominent conservative fundraising group that has spent nearly $150 million over the last two election cycles, has invited a half-dozen potential Republican presidential candidates to its annual donor retreat next month – but not Donald Trump.^[0]

In a meeting with reporters on Monday, David McIntosh, president of the group, said that Republican chances at winning back the White House in the next election would be diminished if Trump were again at the top of the ticket, and that he hoped to introduce Republican donors to other possibilities.^[0]

McIntosh suggested that the Republican Party should consider having another candidate on board, as they have lost too many elections with Trump as the face of the party.^[0] He noted that he was not making a personal slight against the former president, but was instead concerned about the party’s chances of winning in 2024.

The six candidates invited to the retreat include Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), and Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA).^[0] It is not yet clear which of these candidates have accepted the invitation, and McIntosh declined to comment on the issue.^[1]

Jonathan Seidel, a special adviser to the Club for Growth, wrote in a statement that the organisation should learn from the 2022 midterms that the “loudest voice in each political party sets the tone for the entire election.”^[2]

Although Trump is so far the only major candidate to have declared his intent to run in 2024, Haley is expected to confirm her own bid for the White House on February 15.^[3]

0. “Club for Growth Distances Itself Further From Trump” Yahoo News, 7 Feb. 2023, https://news.yahoo.com/club-growth-distances-itself-further-130303612.html

1. “Donald Trump excluded from prospective GOP presidential candidates donor retreat” Washington Examiner, 7 Feb. 2023, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/club-for-growth-invites-gop-except-trump

2. “Koch Political Machine Vows to Fight to Deny Trump GOP Nomination in 2024” Yahoo! Voices, 5 Feb. 2023, https://www.yahoo.com/news/koch-political-machine-vows-fight-123030494.html

3. “Donald Trump braces for major donation snub as Koch brothers ready to ‘turn page on past'” Express, 6 Feb. 2023, https://www.express.co.uk/news/us/1731043/Donald-Trump-donation-2024-election-Koch-Brothers-GOP-dxus