House Minority Whip Steve Scalise raised $5.3 million in this year’s third quarter, his campaign announced on Tuesday.
The amount increased the Louisiana Republican’s year-to-date total to nearly $21.5 million, The Hill reported.
The congressman’s campaign said a total of $1.9 million from the third-quarter haul will go to the National Republican Congressional Committee. Republicans need a net gain of five seats in next year’s midterms to recapture control of the House.
“Taking back the House has NEVER been more important than it is right now,” Scalise said in a statement, The Hill reported.
“I’m doing everything I can – connecting with donors all across the country and raising money directly for battleground Members – to ensure that we have the resources needed to win next fall.”
Scalise, who represents a deep red district in eastern Louisiana, is not expected to face much competition next year. He was elected to a seventh term in the House by a nearly 47-point margin in 2020.
Former President Donald Trump carried Scalise’s district by roughly 38 points.
Scalise, therefore, likely can more freely transfer funds to the NRCC than other GOP candidates in more competitive districts, The Hill said. He has given more than $10 million to the Republican House campaign arm this year.
The campaign said Tuesday that the congressman helped raise money for 11 incumbent House Republicans through his digital program, The Hill said.
Scalise on Sunday blamed last week’s poor jobs report on Democrats’ welfare programs that were “paying people not to work.” The ranking member of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis said it was no surprise the report showed employment increased far less than expected in September.
“Paying people not to work is still a drag on the economy,” Scalise told Fox News.
He also pointed to “some of the other welfare programs [Democrats] set up earlier this year making it easier for people to stay at home rather than get a job when every employer you talked to was looking for workers.”
Scalise also told Fox News that COVID vaccine mandates were responsible for layoffs of “a large swath of people” including hospital workers and police officers who would leave their jobs rather than get vaccination.
“What President [Joe] Biden needs to work on is, number one, get an FDA commissioner,” he said. “It’s been called a rudderless ship over there.”
