Make no mistake, despite their lukewarm feelings about a Trump candidacy, the Koch brothers are still deeply involved in this year’s election cycle. The Kochs claimed their first victory last night, defeating Renee Ellmers, a three-term United States Representative from North Carolina’s 2nd District.
Ellmers drew the ire of the Koch-network by supporting the Export-Import Bank, a longtime target of the Kochs. In retaliation, the Kochs deployed Americans for Prosperity and Concerned Veterans for America to knock-off Ellmers.
The Kochs used North Carolina’s 2nd district race as a warning to Republicans. Charles Koch warned that if you back, “welfare for the wealthy that we’ll oppose you,” Republican or not. The Kochs laid down a marker out of fear that, “the Republicans will just take us for granted and do what they want rather than what will create a better society.”
Despite having previously appeared at an Americans for Prosperity (AFP) event, AFP invested over $200,000 in their crusade against Rep. Ellmers. The group boasted that they’d knocked over 15,000 doors and made 178,000 phone calls to defeat Ellmers. Additionally, Ellmers was the target of AFP-NC’s so-called “#DayofAction” a mere two days before the election. AFP wasn’t shy about taking credit for Ellmer’s defeat, and took to Twitter to boast:
Alleged veterans advocacy group Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) also targeted Ellmers on the ground, sending canvassers to knock in opposition to Ellmers. Interestingly, Ellmers wasn’t targeted for any issue relating to veterans, but rather for her alleged, “bad habit of voting YES to national debt increases.“
The Kochs’ involvement in Ellmer’s race isn’t the first example of the Kochs jumping into primaries to make sure their chosen candidate prevails. Freedom Partners were behind the mysterious dark-money group “Trees of Liberty” which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in Joni Ernst’s Iowa U.S. Senate primary. Following her primary victory, Ernst traveled to the Kochs’ summer summit in California to pay homage to her benefactors.
The Kochs sent a powerful message to Republican incumbents last night: kowtow to our agenda, or face a Koch-backed primary challenge.