RNC Heads into 2026 Midterms with Most Cash on Hand Ever
The Republican National Committee ended the month of April with more cash on hand than at any other point in the group’s history, as closely contested midterm elections draw near and the fate of Republicans’s majority in the House and Senate hang in the balance.
The RNC raised $18.6 million in April, bringing its total cash on hand to $123.8 million, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
“Republicans have the candidates, resources, and momentum needed to win the midterms, but we cannot let up now,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement. “Democrats will spend whatever it takes to try to stop President Trump’s America First agenda, which is why the RNC is already investing aggressively in our ground game and election integrity operation, including deploying 34 State Directors and Election Integrity Directors across 17 key battleground states to drive turnout and secure victories this November.”
Democrats’s fundraising, however, has outpaced Republicans’s in key Senate races.
It’s a good time to be a Senate Democrat raising money. pic.twitter.com/14ckMHHnyI
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) April 16, 2026
In Texas, for example, Texas state Representative James Talarico has raised more than six times his two Republican opponents combined: Senator John Cornyn (R., Texas) and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Paxton, who has raised the least of the three candidates, was recently endorsed by President Donald Trump, who said, “Ken Paxton has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next United States Senator from the Great State of Texas,” in a Truth Social post.
In 2024, incumbent Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) faced off against Democratic challenger Representative Collin Allred, with the pair raising a combined $192 million — the most expensive Senate race in the United States that election cycle.
Although Cruz won by a comfortable margin, polls leading up to the election suggested otherwise. Further, Allred outpaced Cruz in fundraising efforts. But by the end of the race, Allred also far outspent Cruz, ending with just under $200,000 on hand compared to Cruz’s almost $5 million.
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Democrats have long wanted to turn the Lone Star state blue, but even with higher fundraising outputs in the last major election, Republicans like Cruz maintained their seats and held onto the Republican stronghold in the state.
Allred initially mounted another bid for the Senate this cycle, but later dropped out of the race, deciding instead to run for the House in one of the only two congressional districts in the state that still favor Democrats after Texas Republicans’s recent redistricting.
Democrats also continue to rely on dark money groups for fundraising, obscuring their donors’s identities through super PAC contributions.
The largest Democratic super PAC, Future Forward, directed $266 million from its own nonprofit, Future Forward USA Action to the PAC. Future Forward was the biggest advertiser during the 2024 presidential election, the New York Times reported.
The RNC is spending its money to bolster its “ground game” and election integrity projects, according the group. Its 34 state directors and election integrity officers were sent to 17 different battleground states, including North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Georgia, an RNC official told NOTUS. Staffers were also sent to “places that we [RNC] don’t traditionally play,” like Alaska and Maine, the official said.
The staffers will “recruit poll workers, poll watchers and election observers, while coordinating legal and Election Day oversight across key battlegrounds,” according to Fox News.
Vice President JD Vance currently serves as the RNC Finance Chair, the first sitting vice president to do so. At the time of the announcement, Trump said Vance knows “how to fight and win tough races.”
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