Trump told conservative PAC to ‘Stop carving up’ Marshall in Kansas primary, CNN says
Kansas Rep. Roger Marshall caught a break this summer in his GOP primary campaign for U.S. Senate when Club for Growth, the conservative Super PAC, called off its attack ads against him at the request of President Trump.
Trump reached out to the PAC after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell conveyed the concern of party leaders that a Kris Kobach victory in the Aug. 4 primary could deliver the seat to Democrats for the first time since 1932.
According to CNN’s Manu Raju, Trump minced no words. With McConnell in the Oval Office, Trump called Club for Growth’s president David McIntosh on speakerphone.
“Stop carving up” Marshall, Trump said, according to two CNN sources.
The Super PAC had been unhappy with Marshall since 2016, when he knocked off its preferred conservative, incumbent Rep. Tim Huelskamp in the Republican primary.
Club for Growth stood down on June 26, according to The New York Times.
“We believe Rep. Marshall is not a strong pro-growth candidate. But the Club for Growth PAC is not endorsing in this race and Club for Growth Action will be deploying resources in other critical House and Senate primaries,” McIntosh said in a statement.
Marshall went on to defeat Kobach in the August primary, advancing to face Democrat Barbara Bollier in November’s election.
“If you don’t nominate people who can appeal to the general election audience, you are going to lose,” McConnell told CNN. “And so the President has been helpful in working with me and making sure we got the right people nominated.”
Current betting markets have Marshall as a favorite over Bollier in the upcoming Senate contest, though medical and health science site STAT recently labeled the competition as “surprisingly close” based on Bollier’s support for Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act.
This story was originally published September 10, 2020 at 12:25 PM.
