They’re getting in — against Trump
The network of donors and activist groups led by conservative billionaire Charles Koch will oppose Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination, mounting a direct challenge to the former president’s campaign to win back the White House.
“The best thing for the country would be to have a president in 2025 who represents a new chapter,” Emily Seidel, chief executive of the network’s flagship group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), wrote in a memo released publicly on Sunday. The three-page missive repeatedly suggests that AFP is taking on the responsibility of stopping Trump, with Seidel writing: “Lots of people are frustrated. But very few people are in a position to do something about it. AFP is. Now is the time to rise to the occasion.”
I think this actually works in Trump’s favor for two reasons. First, it allows him to run against the “establishment elite” (which he is actually at the center of) and pretend he’s the outsider. His followers are dim so they’ll buy it.
More importantly, the Koch network has a somewhat spotty record. Recall that they backed Scott Walker in 2016:
Koch support for Walker stems back to at least his 2010 election for governor. The money is difficult to trace because reporting donors is not required, but open governance groups in Wisconsin estimated that one Koch-funded group, Americans for Prosperity, spent about $3.7 million in television advertisements alone that benefited Walker, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. That doesn’t include the money spent on organizing efforts and other activities that AFP in that tangentially helps a candidate.
AFP, which has chapters in 44 states around the country, is highly active in Wisconsin and while it was engaged in Wisconsin prior, it became a prominent player there when Walker gutted collective bargaining for teachers and state employees in 2011, an action that led to his recall election.
After a successful run in Wisconsin, helping to promote Walker’s conservative policies, the head of AFP in Wisconsin at the time, Luke Hilgemann, received a nice promotion and is now the CEO of the groups national organization based in Virginia.
In more traceable political contributions, Koch Industries, the conglomerate owned by Charles and David Koch, was the largest donor to the Republican Governors Association in 2014, giving more than $5 million. In 2012, the year of Walker’s recall election, Koch Industries gave more than $2 million to the group, which spent heavily in Walker’s recall and reelection. Koch Industries also donated $53,000 directly to Walker’s campaigns.
The Koch brothers have business interest in Wisconsin employing thousands of people, including an oil pipeline owned by its subsidiary Koch Pipeline Company and refineries operated by another subsidiary Flint Hills Resources. Georgia-Pacific, a paper and wood manufacturing company owned by Koch Industries, is home to numerous offices in the Badger State.
Walker has met with the Koch brothers. He attended a summit in Palm Springs, California earlier this year to meet with Koch donors. It was the same summit that hosted Senators Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, potential presidential rivals, but Walker didn’t speak at the portion that was covered by the press. Instead he spoke to donors in a closed door setting.
Walker also received criticism during the union protests for taking a phone call from David Koch. The call was leaked to the press because the caller ended up being a prank. In his book “Unintimidated,” Walker said his conversation with the prankster was proof that he had never spoken to Koch before because he didn’t know that it was not his voice. But Walker told the caller, whom he thought was Koch, “Thanks, thanks for all the support and helping us move the cause forward, and we appreciate it.”
At the luncheon in New York Monday, an attendee in the room said Koch told the audience, “My brother and I are going to take a neutral position as to who we are going to support until the primaries are over by the beginning of….. in the summer of next year…so when the primaries are over and Scott Walker gets the nomination, well then we will support.” The audience laughed.
That worked out well for them.
They have money and that certainly helps. But there’s a ton of money in politics these days and one group like AFP doesn’t have a deciding vote. The narrative is already being set that this spells a death blow for Trump. I wouldn’t count on it.