A new day is dawning in the U.S. Senate with the departure of Mitch McConnell as the Republican leader, and that includes new leadership in the GOP’s fundraising arm to help elect new senators.
Driving that effort will be former U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who’s been tapped to serve as chairman of the Board of the Senate Leadership Fund.
The PAC has raised billions over the past decade to win new seats, like the four just captured from Democrats in Montana, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
Interestingly, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper is one of those races that will be up in the next cycle.
PeakNation will recall that Hickenlooper won that race by beating Gardner, leaving Coloradans with the lamest, most useless representative in Washington not seen since, well …
Do us a solid, Gardner, and help us get rid of both these guys.
Gardner’s role will be to help raise money for the PAC and lead the search for the organization’s new CEO and president to replace longtime McConnell aide, Steven J. Law.
Law announced his resignation last week to coincide with McConnell’s departure as Senate leader.
Punchbowl announced the changing of the guard Monday, with this statement from Johnny DeStafano, who runs incoming leader John Thune’s political operation:
“Cory understands the complexity of midterm elections and modern campaigns, and he knows firsthand the importance of working hand in glove with President Trump and his team to defeat Democrats,” said DeStefano, a longtime Republican hand who oversaw the political operation in the White House in Trump’s first term.
Gardner is the right pick for the job, having led as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee — the GOP’s campaign apparatus for the Senate — when Trump served his first term.
Gardner lost reelection in 2020, the same year as Trump’s failed reelection effort that many Coloradans blamed on Trump’s coattails as well as COVID, which allowed Hick to campaign from his basement, where he’s been ever since.
