Money well spent.
A website set up to solicit and dole out campaign donations to key races that could stop House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi from becoming House speaker raised more than $50,000 in its first hours Wednesday morning, organizers said.
Created by Rep. Jim Banks, Indiana Republican, StopSpeakerPelosi.com was intended to help Republicans boost their online campaign finance game — an area where Democrats have held a major advantage.
The website asks people to donate and then divides the cash among Republicans in 23 House races, which corresponds with the number of seats Democrats need to capture in order to retake control of the chamber for the first time since the 2010 elections.
The candidates span from Florida to California and include four races in Virginia, suggesting how quickly that state has turned into a key battleground.
Mr. Banks said what spurred him to action was hearing Mrs. Pelosi tell CNN this week that she is confident Democrats will win control of the House and that her colleagues will elect her speaker — her second time at the helm.
“We’ve been talking about it since the beginning of the cycle. All of a sudden we’re here, the election is a little less than two weeks away and she’s already declaring victory,” Mr. Banks said. “That was a sucker punch for me.”
He took inspiration for StopSpeakerPelosi.com from Act Blue, which funnels donations to Democratic candidates and has had a blockbuster year. Mr. Banks said even long-shot candidates are collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars thanks to Democrats’ ability to tap small-dollar donors online.
The average donation to the Pelosi-blocking website Wednesday evening was $23, amounting to $1 to each campaign.
Organizers said they are trying to tap Republican fears of what a Pelosi-led House would do to the Republican agenda and particularly to President Trump.
“Impeachment is on the table. Tax cuts are on the table. They’re going to swamp the administration with investigations,” said Jordan Gehrke, a Republican Party consultant who helped craft the effort.