A year after a turbulent convention resulted in a massive turnover of party leadership, local donations to the Nebraska Republican Party have yet to return to previous levels.
Since the state party convention on July 9, 2022, the last 11 months of local donations to the Nebraska GOP added up to about $122,000, according to the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission. In the year leading up to the convention, the party raised nearly $1 million.
In contrast, national donations to the Nebraska GOP as recorded by the Federal Election Commission remained at the same level. The party collected about $632,000 in money during the last 11 months, according to FEC reports, and $631,000 in the previous year.
All told, the state GOP has brought in roughly $746,000 since the convention, compared with more than $1.6 million the previous year.
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Meanwhile, the Nebraska Democratic Party has outraised the Nebraska GOP, both in local and national money. Combined, over the last 11 months, the state’s Democrats have raised roughly $2.1 million.
That’s unusual, according to former Nebraska GOP Chairman Dan Welch and current Nebraska Democratic Party Chairwoman Jane Kleeb. While some Democratic congressional candidates have outraised their Republican opponents in individual races, the two said it’s abnormal for the state Democratic party to outraise its Republican counterpart, especially by this much. Welch said it never happened during his eight years as chairman.
The was marked with tension from beginning to end, culminating in delegates voting to change the party’s constitution so they could immediately vote out Welch and replace him with current Chairman Eric Underwood.
Welch’s removal prompted a wave of resignations among other leaders in the party, including the executive director, the national committeewoman, the first and second district chair, the party treasurer, the secretary, the assistant chairman and the assistant state party chair.
Whether the events of the convention are the main cause of the drop in local donations to the party is up for debate. But observers tend to agree that it’s at least a factor.
Underwood said there hasn’t been much time to focus on fundraising efforts because of the party’s restructuring, multiple major elections and a contentious legislative session. But in recent months, he said, he’s begun developing a new fundraising method that he believes will bring the party’s revenues back to more normal levels by 2024.
Kleeb said the $746,000 total that the Nebraska GOP has raised in the past 11 months is barely enough to maintain the normal operations of a state party. In a heavily red state like Nebraska, Kleeb said, a Republican organization ought to have annual donations in the millions.
If Republicans are unable to turn their fundraising around, Kleeb and others said it could affect how the party operates in the future.
“Without money, essentially you shrivel up and die,†said University of Nebraska at Omaha political science professor Randall Adkins.
Both Adkins and Underwood noted that political parties typically raise more money during election years than during off years, and 2023 isn’t an election year.
Still, roughly four months of the donations over the last year included the lead-up to the 2022 midterms, and the Nebraska GOP received in those months than during the months before the July 2022 convention.
Another major factor is the absence of donations from Sen. Pete Ricketts. In the year before the convention, when Ricketts was governor, more than half of the $1 million in Nebraska donations to the party came from the Ricketts family. But since the convention, the family hasn’t donated any money directly to the Nebraska GOP.
Ricketts has continued to contribute to individual campaigns and other political groups in Nebraska, however. He gave $150,000 to Suzanne Geist’s mayoral campaign in Lincoln, and more than $60,000 to Rep. Don Bacon’s upcoming reelection campaign. He’s also donated $250,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and nearly $290,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee.
When Ricketts was governor, Kleeb said the Nebraska GOP was the “epicenter†of campaign coordination. But after the events of the convention — which many suspect was in part an act of resistance against Ricketts’ influence over the party — Ricketts and other donors lost trust in the party, she said.
Underwood acknowledged that Ricketts was the single biggest funding source for the party before the convention. However, he argued it was poor planning for party leadership to rely solely on one donor for the majority of its fundraising. He said he intends to cast a wider net when collecting donations.
Since the convention, Underwood said, several other major donors besides Ricketts have not contributed to the party. In the last month, however, he said he’s begun to reach out to them to work on rebuilding those relationships.
Adkins said he assumes the latest legislative session — which tackled several divisive topics such as gender-affirming care, abortion and gun control — affected donations to the party. The shifting political landscape nationally could also play a role, he said.
Adkins wasn’t surprised by the lack of change in contributions recorded nationally to the Nebraska GOP. Though some Nebraska residents are among those donors, the bulk of donations recorded by the FEC to either party came through large contributions from national political organizations. Such groups are unlikely to change their donations based on local events like a contentious state party convention, he said.
While donations to the Nebraska Democratic Party have ebbed and flowed over the years, contributions to Democrats during the past year have been higher than usual, Kleeb said. She hopes to make the most of that money by focusing more on rural Nebraska and putting more effort into recruiting candidates for smaller races where Republicans have often run unopposed.
Kleeb said she still expects Republican candidates in Nebraska to be well-funded even if less money is going directly to their party. Candidates will continue to be supported by contributions straight to their campaigns or through political action committees and other groups, she said.
Even so, she said less money for the state party could affect Republicans overall. State parties are able to use more political tools like direct mail at a lower cost due to their tax status, she said, allowing candidates to spend their money on other things. Welch said parties also have a lot of influence on turnout through voter outreach efforts.
“Money is the lifeblood of these political races,†Welch said.
Beginning in April, Underwood said he began developing a new method of fundraising. Rather than focusing on large contributions from a handful of donors, Underwood said he plans to focus on building relationships with a larger group of Republicans.
One of the new strategies the party recently launched on its website includes multiple tiers of party membership for individuals based on how much they donate annually.
The first level, NEGOP+, is for members who donate between $150 and $600 each year, and includes perks such as access to special party events and party merchandise. The second level is for larger donors who contribute between $1,000 and $25,000 yearly, and offers a range of additional benefits, such as invitations to a private reception with elected officials.
Underwood said he anticipates that the new effort, combined with more traditional event-based fundraising, will bring the Nebraska GOP’s fundraising closer to what the party was getting before the convention.
“You’ll see, from the party here, a natural ramp up,†Underwood said.