Republicans Are Losing Money Because of Trump

Six top GOP donors stopped giving money to the Michigan or Arizona Republican parties because of their perceived support for the discredited claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against Donald Trump, according to a new report.

One former Michigan donor, real estate tycoon Ron Weiser, told Reuters it is "ludicrous" to claim Trump won the state in 2020, as supporters of the former president are continuing to do.

Trump is currently running to be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, with polling giving him a commanding lead over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is his closest rival. Concerns about the former president's impact on fundraising are likely to help DeSantis, who is attempting to convince voters he's the party's best bet for returning to the White House after the November 2024 election.

In November 2020, Joe Biden defeated Trump by 306 electoral college votes to 232, resulting in him being inaugurated as president the following January. Trump is continuing to insist the contest was "rigged" against him, though this claim has been repeatedly dismissed in court and by independent legal and election experts.

Former President Donald Trump speaks in Pickens, South Carolina, on July 1, 2023. His electoral fraud conspiracy theories are reportedly resulting in Republican parties losing donors. Sean Rayford/GETTY

Reuters reported that six former donors had stopped giving to Republican parties in Michigan and Arizona over their backing of candidates who questioned the 2020 election's legitimacy and what they regard as extreme positions on other issues, such as abortion.

Referring to the Michigan GOP's support for election conspiracy theorists Weiser, who used to chair the party, commented: "I question whether the state party has the necessary expertise to spend the money well."

In Arizona, Jim Click, from a family of longstanding GOP donors, told Reuters that "it's too bad we let the right wing of our party take over the operations," and said he would switch to backing individual candidates rather than the state Republican party.

According to campaign finance filings the Arizona GOP had just $50,000 in its state and federal bank accounts on March 31, down from nearly $770,000 four years ago. Filings also show the Michigan GOP had around $116,000 in its federal account on March 31, compared to almost $867,000 on the same date in 2021.

Newsweek reached out to the Michigan and Arizona Republican parties via email, and Donald Trump via the press contact form on his official website for comment.

A number of Arizona Republican candidates in the 2022 midterms endorsed Trump's claims of electoral fraud including Kari Lake, who lost the state gubernatorial election to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Lake is still refusing to concede.

Republican Kristina Karamo lost her bid to become Michigan secretary of state, which would have given her substantial influence over how the 2024 presidential election is conducted. Karamo had falsely claimed Trump really won the 2020 election in Michigan and blamed the January 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol on "Antifa posing as Trump supporters."