Last year, it was a fundraising feast for the MAGA Goon Squad. But in 2022, without the donor stimulus of an attempted insurrection, things are going in the wrong direction.
The first three months of the year took more than $275,000 combined out of the pockets of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), and Matt Gaetz (R-FL)—the foursome of America First, Donald Trump-loving, exhibitionist election objectors. All told, it was their worst showing to date.
It wasn’t always like this.
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In 2021, that crew saw eye-popping returns, stacking up a combined year-over-year gain of $4.8 million. The only one who showed a net loss on the year was Gaetz, whose campaign account shed $95,000 amid a drumroll of bombshell headlines and steep costs related to an ongoing child sex trafficking investigation. Still, the post-insurrection fundraising ground was so fertile that even he posted record fundraising hauls, taking in $3.2 million in the first half of 2021.
But the campaign that led the way last year has also done the most damage this year. That distinction would go to the Greene campaign, which, after banking $5.2 million last year, kicked off 2022 with a $3 million haul. While stunning, that total didn’t outstrip the record spending that ultimately left her $314,000 in the hole. It was Greene’s first negative fundraising return since she was elected.
The only squad member who hasn’t turned in a quarterly loss yet is Boebert. The Gaetz campaign took a bath in both the second and third quarter last year, and Cawthorn hasn’t bulked up since his million-dollar fundraising spree on the heels of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
After losing another $41,300 since January, the Cawthorn campaign only holds about $282,000, a little more than half its stash this time last year. And he’s sapped whatever firepower he might hold in his other committees, in the process rankling potential allies.
To round out the current on-hand totals, Gaetz—a three-term incumbent—sits on about $1.6 million. Boebert has around $2.2 million. And Greene anchors the crew with $3 million in the bank.
It’s not immediately clear if a unified theory can explain the sputter. Each candidate can claim their own recent plagues.
Cawthorn can’t seem to put the brakes on his runaway spending. Legal and PR bills wiped Gaetz out last year, but have subsided for now, allowing him to get his nose above water. And Greene appears to have switched up this year, scrapping her tried and true—and costly—digital efforts and instead putting a fat bet on a direct mail campaign that didn’t pan out.
While Boebert’s consistency stands out, this quarter’s totals represented her smallest gains by far. The thin margin can be attributed in large part to her record $700,000 in expenses—hundreds of thousands more than average.
Curiously, more than $470,000 of that money went to “media production” services from Rock Chalk Media, a company owned by former Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s brother, Alex. And while Rock Chalk has always been a top Boebert vendor—Jason Chaffetz backed her 2020 primary challenge to a GOP incumbent—the campaign’s payments this last quarter are extreme, about half what it paid the company in all of 2021.
It’s also not immediately clear what kind of production value that money bought, because Boebert’s Google, Facebook, and Twitter campaign ads and videos don’t stray far from direct and unadorned selfies.
But even with those coinciding explanations, the Jan. 6 effect looms large.
The squad hasn’t ever seen contributions like they did in the first months of 2021. Election denialism, the Capitol riot, and then-President Trump’s subsequent second impeachment activated the MAGAsphere, and in the following weeks frustrated right-wing donors threw financial support behind the officials whose voices most resonated with them in the post-Trump vacuum.
Instead, over the last year they’ve leaned largely on rhetoric, outrage bait, and media stunts to keep their names—and hopefully some cash—in circulation. And while controversy seems to be a winning gimmick for the Goons, It didn’t always shake out, such as with the cash fire that was last summer’s Greene-Gaetz “Put America First” fundraising tour.
While a few kerfuffles studded the last three months, the only squad member to catch major media traction this quarter was Cawthorn—and that controversy led to a public shaming from Republican congressional leaders.
With midterms rolling around in November, this seems like a particularly bad time for these Republicans to lose money. But all four MAGA bomb-throwers emerged from heavily Republican districts, and hold the type of safe seats that normally don’t put much stress on incumbent bank accounts.
This year, however, may be a little different.
For all four, the controversies that drew millions of dollars have also drawn challenges from within the party. Boebert and Cawthorn face possibly problematic races, and the burn pit that is the Cawthorn operation’s bank account has even his own advisers scratching their heads.
It appears Cawthorn’s bankroll is destined for a slightly thinner future. Two $1,000 out-of-state donations last quarter have been found to be erroneous, and, one of the donors told The Daily Beast, possibly fraudulent.
