Leaders of the Koch network did not change their position or opinion of Trump after that meeting.
Advertisement
The Koch political network, which has steadfastly refused to engage in the 2016 presidential contest, plans to invoke Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in paid messages to voters as part of its campaigns backing Republican Senate candidates, top officials said. The 80-year old dismissed rumors that he would support Clinton as equivalent to “blood libel”.
The Kochs spent some $400 million on U.S. politics in 2015 and are planning to shell out about $900 million to shape this year’s presidential election.
The ambitious Koch network has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to influence politics and public policy over the last decade, but don’t plan to spend anything to help Trump, even if some of the 400 or so deep-pocketed donors gathered in Colorado Springs this weekend think it should.
The investment comes as the Koch brothers refuse to invest their tremendous resources in the presidential contest.
The Koch network has avoided supporting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign so far.
“Terrible and truly bad are the two choices”, Wright said, suggesting that even if he voted for Trump in November and that’s not decided he wouldn’t go any further.
“We’re not going to give any money to support Donald Trump”, donor Chris White told the Associated Press.
Timothy Busch, a California-based donor, said he’d vote for Trump but do nothing more on his behalf.
Charles Koch along with his brother, David, form a political and financial powerhouse over American politics, both directly and indirectly, via various advocacy and lobbying organizations. This weekend’s event included a small number of reporters, including one from the Associated Press. As a condition of attending, reporters were not permitted to identify any donors without their permission. “But on some of the Republican candidates … before we could support them, we’d have to believe their actions will be quite different than the rhetoric we’ve heard so far”.
The weekend’s agenda featured a series of policy discussions and appearances from at least three governors, four senators and four members of the House of Representatives, including House Speaker Paul Ryan.
“We are going to tie the Democrat candidates to Hillary Clinton and the failed policies that she supports, and highlight the differences with the Republican candidates that we favour and that we’re supporting”, said Mr Mark Holden, chairman of the board of Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the network’s funding arm.
Advertisement
“I told him that it was very important that Hillary Clinton not get elected”, Minnesota media mogul Stanley Hubbard said, as the Washington Post reported.
