In erasing limits on how much political parties can coordinate with federal candidates, the US Supreme Court on Tuesday handed Republicans a major political victory just ahead of this fall’s midterm elections.
The 6-3 decision by the high court rolled back a longstanding restriction on the use of party funds to directly benefit candidates and is expected to inject more money into political advertising in the coming weeks and months.
Republicans stand to immediately benefit from the ruling, which stemmed from a case initially filed by then-Senate candidate JD Vance and other Republicans. GOP-aligned committees have massive war chests they can unleash to boost their favored candidates as they work to counter Democratic candidates’ fundraising edge with small-dollar donors.
The Republican National Committee, for instance, entered June with more than $125 million in available cash and no unpaid bills. By contrast, the Democratic National Committee had a negative balance, with nearly $15 million remaining in its coffers but more than $18 million in debt.
“The DNC is in an atrocious fundraising position,” Sean Cooksey, a former Federal Election Commission chairman who previously served as Vance’s chief legal adviser in the White House, told CNN. In a social media post earlier this month, Cooksey predicted a favorable ruling would leave Republicans “with nuclear weapons” and the DNC with “one of those Wile E. Coyote guns with a flag that says Bang!”
