GOP candidates left scrambling for cash as three Trump-loving lawmakers gobble up 80 percent of small donations

According to a report from the Daily Beasts' Lachlan Markay, three of the farthest right-wing GOP lawmakers in the House are gobbling up an extraordinary 80 percent of small donor 2020 campaign donations leaving their colleagues scrambling to fund their own re-election endeavors.

It goes without saying that all three are fanatical supporters of Donald Trump known for their bombastic appearances on cable TV defending the president and making outrageous statements.

According to the report those three candidates are Reps. Steve King (R-IA), Devin Nunes (R-CA) and embattled Republican Duncan Hunter, also of California.

"We examined first-quarter fundraising numbers for every incumbent on the Cook Political Report’s list of competitive 2020 House races—52 Democrats and 35 Republicans in all. Nunes, King, and Hunter are the only congressmen of either party who got more than half of all their individual contributions in Q1 in the form of unitemized donations, or donations of less than $200," Markay wrote.

While a GOP adviser claimed those donations are a promising sign, other Republican candidates -- who will be running in high turn-out election -- may be facing a daunting task matching their Democratic opponents dollar-for dollar.

"Remove Nunes, King, and Hunter from the equation, and the average GOP small-dollar haul plummets to $14,000. Few other candidates have had much luck bringing in large sums of unitemized contributions. And it’s not clear that other Republicans can or should mimic the fundraising tactics of those three," the report states noting that donations are likely the result of appeals to hardcore grassroots supporters who follow the three lawmakers exploits.

"The data suggest that to the extent Republicans are posting impressive small-dollar fundraising numbers, it’s largely a product of the idiosyncratic grassroots appeal of a number of high-profile candidates, not, as with the Democrats, any centralized small-dollar fundraising apparatus deployed in support of the party’s vulnerable members," Markay stated.

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