A multi-millionaire Republican donor is threatening to turn off the money supply to GOP candidates who don’t support DACA.
Politico reported on former Exelon chairman John Rowe:
“Every member of the Illinois delegation knows this is one of the most important issues facing them and it determines how much money I’m giving them,†said Rowe, who heads a pro-immigrant business group in Illinois. “This is the home state of Abraham Lincoln. We’re betraying our entire heritage if we don’t get this done.â€
Rowe has directly contributed more than $500,000 to campaigns over the last three years alone, predominantly to Republicans, and raised tens of thousands more. But as co-chair of the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition, he is attempting to pressure Republicans — particularly from his home state — to come up with a resolution on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which gave protections to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.
Nothing will get Republican attention faster than turning off their campaign cash. It is interesting that Rowe would do this in 2018 because Illinois is one of the states that Democrats are targeting for potential House seat pickups in November.
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Trump’s hard line on immigration and lust for deporting DREAMERS is not popular among conservatives in the business community, who understand that DREAMERS are an essential part of keeping the US economy going. Some Republicans who voted for Trump are facing the prospect of potentially going out of business because they can’t get the immigrant labor that they need. Elected Republicans don’t care about the will of the majority of doing the right thing.
The House Republican majority is governed by cold hard cash, and the only people who are going to change policy are the millionaires and billionaires who are writing the checks that fund the reelection campaigns of Republican incumbents. Only when the checks stop coming, will House Republicans change their votes.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
