A new super PAC headed by influential Trump allies is throwing its weight behind Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) as he aims to become the next House majority whip if Republicans take back the majority next year.
The American Leadership PAC, which has raised roughly $2 million since launching in September, is boosting candidates and members who align with his views of the party.
Andy Surabian, the organization’s chief strategist and formerly an adviser to Steve Bannon and Donald Trump Jr., said the group is “proud to do our part to help elect Republicans” and sees Banks, who heads the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus in Congress, as an important figure for the future of the GOP.
“Jim Banks has distinguished himself as one of the most important intellectual and political leaders of the new conservative movement. Unlike so many others in Washington, D.C., he truly gets how President Trump remade the Republican Party for the better,” he told the Washington Examiner.
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“We’re proud to do our part to help elect Republicans who share Jim’s vision of a working-class Republican Party that is unafraid to defend our conservative values from the authoritarian Left,” he added.
While Banks is not directly involved with the group, as Federal Election Commission laws prohibit members from coordinating with outside PACs, the Indiana Republican praised its efforts to get conservatives elected.
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“This is another major effort to help win back the House majority, and I’m grateful for American Leadership PAC’s efforts. I am doing everything I can to do my part to fire Nancy Pelosi and replace her with Kevin McCarthy in the speaker’s chair,” Banks told the Washington Examiner.
Axios first reported that the PAC, which Surabian is helping head alongside strategist James Blair, is expected to pour money into races for Jennifer-Ruth Green in Indiana’s 1st Congressional District, Bo Hines in North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District, Eli Crane in Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District, as well as Reps. Mike Garcia (R-CA) and Ashley Hinson (R-IA) ahead of November’s election.
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One source familiar with the efforts said they see Banks’s ties within the conservative movement, in addition to his close relationship with the Trump family, including Trump Jr., as strengths that could give him an edge in the race for the highly coveted whip position.
The race for the job has been heating up, with National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Emmer (R-MN) and Chief Deputy Whip Drew Ferguson (R-GA) also publicly vying for the role in what members describe as a neck-and-neck contest, with each candidate having locked down support from different factions of the conference.
The source argued that one of the Indiana Republican’s perceived shortcomings in the battle for the leadership position has been fundraising numbers in comparison with others running. The new PAC may help him ease concerns about his ability to bring in money.
They added that due to his close relationships with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and those in Trumpworld, they believe he could “serve as the bridge between leadership and conservatives, which is gonna be very important for the whip.”
