Early last year, the Koch brothers announced that their network planned to spend a whopping $889 million on advertising for the 2016 campaign cycle. However, Charles and David Koch have not only been quiet during this campaign season, but their funding is nowhere near the number they had promised in 2015.
“Sources say the paid-media budget for all races this cycle is now $40 million, down from $130 million at the beginning of the year and $150 million a year ago,” reports National Review.
Although the network has donated the most in the 2016 Senate races, this doesn’t come close to the amount spend by the Koch network on advertising in 2014 on 11 senate contests.
Not to mention, the Kochs has yet to fund groups like the US Chamber of Commerce and National Rifle Association so far in 2016. It is to be assumed this is because they don’t want to fund their political agendas.
Even though they have been rather allusive regarding the reasoning for the scale back on political funding, many are speculating that this is because they reject Trump as the republican candidate.
In a CNN interview from April, Charles Koch said that Hillary Clinton would possibly be a better president than Donald Trump. The Koch brothers have continuously supported Republican candidates and are usually one of the biggest backers for the GOP.
“I think there have been some good things, particularly at the state and local level,” said Charles Koch, according to the National Review. “At the federal level, we haven’t in any way changed the trajectory of the country.”
So how will the lack of this major funding effect the chances of a republican candidate being elected president in 2016?
Editor’s note: Its been my experience that billionaires ae a sensitive lot and don’t like being outdone. The Koch Brothers have supported the GOP for a very long time, and Trump has had much greater influence in a very short time. So the Koch brothers and their network are feeling unappreciated.
So if Trump wins the presidency, he will eventually be forced to meet with the Koch’s to get the faucet turned back on for the Senate and Congressional races in 2018. If Trump loses then the Kochs will have a great big “I told you so.”
Hopefully their petulence will not cause too much harm to the Republican Senate and House majorities in the 2016 races.
“I told them, ‘Hey, I think you got two choices: You gotta get involved or have Hillary be president,’” said Stanley Hubbard, the CEO of Hubbard Broadcasting and donor to the Koch network, to National Review. “I think if they don’t get involved and help beat Hillary their donors will be very disappointed. We can’t always have our first choice, and if you are one of the Koch brothers I think you’d probably rather have Trump be president than Hillary.”