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USA Today NetworkJordan Buie, The (Nashville) Tennessean Published 10:42 p.m. ET Aug. 24, 2017 | Updated 10:43 p.m. ET Aug. 24, 2017

President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are locked in an increasingly public and personal feud that threatens to derail the GOPs re-election prospects and its ability to govern. (Aug. 23) AP

President Trump speaks at a rally in Phoenix on Aug. 22, 2017.(Photo: Rick Scuteri, AP)

NASHVILLE As the Republican National Committee met here this week to plot its strategy for the 2018 mid-term elections, President Trump made news for feuding with members of his own party.

The president threatened to shut down the federal government if his planned wall along the U.S.-Mexico border doesnt get funded, and he's reportedly had a tense relationship with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

The president recently tweeted against Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, calling him "weak on crime & border" and the White House on Thursday slammed Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker over his remarks last week that Trump doesnt understand the character of the nation and has not shown the competence to lead.

But as those moments have grabbed headlines, some Republicans in Nashville for the Republican National Committee's summer meetings publicly say they aren't worried about the president's impact on the 2018 elections.

Robert Steele, an RNC committeeman from Michigan, said the committee and the president have seen success in delivering his message and in fundraising.

More: Stalled on health care, President Trump quietly scores wins on energy agenda

More: Trump agenda still in limbo as GOP Congress looks ahead to fall

I think one thing we have seen from the RNC data is that the people who supported the president who are new to the process, the kind of grassroots folks, are all still very excited, Steele said. We are breaking all kinds of records for fundraising, on the grassroots and small-donor side, and we are doing way better than Democrats, and thats not typical.

Jennifer Carnahan, the chairwoman of the Minnesota Republican Party, said she is very optimistic.

Carnahan said Trump won three congressional seat districts there by 15-, 16- and 30-point margins last year and those seats are still held by Democrats.

They are very vulnerable," she said. "We are optimistic in Minnesota about President Trump and the 2018 momentum continuing."

Still, some of Trumps main promises to his base, such as the border wall, the Obamacare repeal and tax cuts, have not materialized. And Democrats have seized on that to criticize Republicans.

More: Political maps under fire as Supreme Court case on tailor-made districts looms

More: Border wall dispute threatens once again to shut down government

Michael Blake, vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, predicted that Trumps controversial comments about the violent protests at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., would hurt Republicans at the polls this year and in 2018.

Corkerand other prominent GOP officeholders have denounced Trumps remarks. But its not enough just to criticize Trumps words, Blake said.

You have to denounce the words and the actions and the policies of Trump, he said.

Still, supporters in the RNC and elsewhere say all the blame doesnt fall on Trump and that the president has also been plagued by overcoverage in the media of his failures and little on his successes.

I think some of his big signature campaign things havent happened, like the wall and health care, but hes actually accomplished a lot, Steele said. Hes signed a tremendous number of bills, a tremendous number of executive actions, and some of this is on the legislators.

Sen. Lamar Alexander echoed this point after speaking to the Tennessee Restaurant Association nearby in Nashville on Thursday.

If a plane crashes, thats news, if it doesnt crash thats not, Alexander said. Fortunately, most planes dont crash and in the same way a lot of the legislation that we pass doesnt make any news because weve worked it out.

Weve got a Supreme Court justice, weve overturned 14 major Obama-era regulations, weve just funded the Food and Drug Administration for the next nine years, almost without dissent, he said. That was two years of hard work.

As far as the presidents off-the-cuff comments that frequently garner controversy, Steele said he believes the president has echoed the sentiments of the rank-and-file Republicans who supported him.

What I find in Pennsylvania, is that the people who voted for the president overwhelmingly still support him and so theres a lot of energy among those folks, said Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Val DiGiorgio said.

Especially, if Congress can get some things done and show they are working with the president, I think those folks will still come out and vote for our congressmen, he said.

Contributing: Michael Collins, USA TODAY; followJordan Buie on Twitter: @jordanbuie.

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Republicans gather to plot 2018 campaign as Trump clashes with party's leaders - USA TODAY

Friction between Republicans and Trump has grown in recent months, with the president publicly castigating some party leaders, notably Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and expressing infuriation that Congress has not passed any significant legislation since his January inauguration.

McConnell did not take a stand on the border wall issue on Wednesday.

He said in a statement he and Trump were in regular contact and working together on a list of goals that included preventing a government default and funding government priorities "in the short and long terms."

"We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we are committed to advancing our shared agenda together and anyone who suggests otherwise is clearly not part of the conversation," he said.

A White House statement said Trump would hold "previously scheduled meetings" with McConnell once Congress returns to Washington and that Trump and McConnell "remain united on many shared priorities, including middle-class tax relief, strengthening the military, constructing a southern border wall, and other important issues."

Congress frequently has to pass funding extensions for a few weeks or months while it hammers out a full budget. Occasionally lawmakers have entered a standoff over a single issue, delaying agreement and forcing a shutdown. The most recent closure, which spanned 15 days in October 2013, was over funding for the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.

In opinion polls during and after that shutdown, voters loudly disapproved of the Republican Party, which controlled the House of Representatives at the time.

Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the Republican chairman of a House Appropriations subcommittee, said Trump's threatened move could backfire on the party.

"When you control the presidency, the Senate and the House, you're shutting down the government that you're running. I don't think it's smart politically and I don't think it would succeed practically," he told Reuters in an interview.

The rest is here:
Fellow Republicans rebuke Trump over government shutdown threat - CNBC

Aug. 24, 2017, 2:53 p.m.

Reps. Jeff Denham and David Valadao joined four other Republicans Thursday to urge President Trump to leave in place deportation protections for some people who were brought to the country illegally as children.

Trump's mixed messages on whether he would continue the 5-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has been a source of consternationsince the Republican took office in January.

California is home to an estimated one-third of the 750,000 people who were granted work permits under the program. Republican attorneys general for Texas and nine other states have given the Trump administration an early September deadline to end the programor be sued.

In aletter to Trump, the representatives encouraged the president to focus on deporting criminals and to allow the program to continue until Congress can find a permanent legislative solution for the people who qualify for the program.

Denham of Turlock and Valadao of Hanford each represent agricultural districts in the Central Valley with large Latino populations, and each face potentially tough battles with Democratsin 2018.

We have violent criminals preying on our communities, and our resources should be going toward their deportation instead of being directed toward the young men and women protected through DACA, who are working toward a better future, Denham said in a statement.

Link:
California Republicans are urging Trump to support DACA - Los Angeles Times

Photo: GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM

Seattle Mayoral candidate Jenny Durkan and her supporters celebrate her first place position in the primary race, as returns come in Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017.

Seattle Mayoral candidate Jenny Durkan and her supporters celebrate her first place position in the primary race, as returns come in Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017.

Guess who deep-pocketed Republicans like for Seattle mayor?

Coming off a primary election that included 21 candidates, the Seattle mayor's race was left with two liberal Democrats contending in the nonpartisan election.

Standing to the left of center -- but just barely is former U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan. Durkan is a liberal political insider in the image of her endorser, embattled incumbent Mayor Ed Murray. She draws backers from many of the same people and groups who supported Murray before he left the race in May amid sex abuse allegations.

And in the farther left corner is Cary Moon, an urban planner and activist who fought hard against the state Route 99 tunnel. Moon has self-identified as a city hall outsider, and her politics are considerably less moderate than Durkan's.

RELATED: Connelly: It's Durkan vs. Moon for mayor, but with Oliver declaring victory

Each has announced her platform, but that only tells part of the story. They have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars together and, like all fundraising, there is another story to be told there.

Campaign finance records filed with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) and collected atFollowTheMoney.org show who donated to whom, and what that might say about each candidate. We looked back at many donors' history of giving to see what they supported in candidates and issues.

The story that emerged was simple: Only a sliver of Moon's donors have given to anything other than Democrats or Dem-backed issues. Durkan's donors, however, include a sampling of the city's wealthy, some of whom almost exclusively backed Republicans or Republican-backed causes in the past.

(Moon, who was something of an underdog in the crowded primary, has self-funded more than half the $181,478 that she has raised so far.)

Take Tom Alberg who donated the maximum $500 to Durkan's campaign. Alberg, the managing director of Madrona Venture Group, has given to candidates 72 times since 1999. Of those donations, 57 went to Republicans, including Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush in 2016, according to data from FollowTheMoney.org. In 2010, Alberg gave $25,000 to a campaign against a measure to institute a state income tax. He also backed campaigns in seven states outside Washington.

Suzanne Burke, president of real estate organization The Fremont Dock Company, gave Durkan $500 toward her candidacy. Burke, who has donated more than $86,000 to campaigns since 1995, has given most of that to Republicans, including $250 in 2016 to U.S. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. She has also made several donations to the King County Republican Central Committee.

Durkan has a number of endorsements from labor groups, but the business sector has given to her campaign, either through CEOs and other figureheads, or directly from companies themselves.

RELATED: Connelly: Labor Council endorses Jenny Durkan for mayor

Kansas-based Ash Grove Cement Company (they have operations in Seattle) handed Durkan $500, but the company has a tendency to back more conservative candidates overall. Of the $1.1 million donated by Ash Grove in the last 23 years, $812,000 has gone to Republicans, according to data from FollowTheMoney.org.

Moon has set herself out as the anti-establishment candidate, and pointed to Durkan as more her opposite than a kindred leftist.

"The fact that we had an unprecedented turnout, and 70 percent of voters were for one of the more progressive candidates, the five of us to the left of Jenny Durkan, is a real sign that voters have had enough with big money and the political establishment running this city in the wrong direction, and they're ready for change," Moon told Seattle Weekly.

In Durkan's case, big money is certainly accurate, as she has accrued more than $523,000 in 2,470 donations compared to Moon's 380 donations totaling just shy of $69,000 in cash, according to PDC records. But Moon pledged not to accept corporate donations and instead has funded $109,000 of her total campaign funds out of her own pocket.

And those who gave to Moon bear little resemblance to Durkan's donors.

Jabez Blumenthal, an investor who is known for being a big campaign giver, gave Moon $500. He has donated more than $400,000 over the last 14 years. Most of it has gone to campaigns on ballot initiatives backed by Democrats or Democrat-minded interests; none went to Republican candidates.

A number of Moon's donors had no records of campaign donations at FollowTheMoney.org, which collects campaign finance data from across the U.S. in local, state and federal elections.

But still, some of her donors have lobbed money to the right before.

Steven Fetter, a consultant, gave $2,700 in support of efforts to get Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich on the presidential ticket.

And then there's Peter H. Van Oppen, a partner in Trilogy Equity, who has mostly given to Dems, but in 2012 gave $1,000 each to President Barack Obama and Republican opponent Mitt Romney.

Even if most of her donors are, in fact, honest leftists not of the Seattle establishment, Moon is known around town as a powerful figure and she's not exactly poor (as evidenced by her funding more than $100,000 of her own campaign).

Daniel DeMay covers Seattle culture, city hall, and transportation for seattlepi.com. He can be reached at 206-448-8362 ordanieldemay@seattlepi.com.Follow him on Twitter:@Daniel_DeMay.

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Guess who deep-pocketed Republicans like for Seattle mayor? - seattlepi.com

Massachusetts Republicans lost one this week, but they got the potential to pick up a bigger one.

First, just when you think the states House Republican caucus couldnt shrink any further, one of its members Susannah M. Whipps of Athol is bailing out of the GOP.

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Whipps, who has refused to back President Trump and sided with Democrats on several important issues in the House, said in a Tuesday statement that she was registering as an independent. That, she said, will allow me to better serve all the people of the district with the obligation of towing any particular line.

But just a few days later, Governor Charlie Baker pulled what looks like a very clever political move when he appointed fifth-term State Senator Jennifer Flanagan of Leominister, a Democrat, to head the states new Cannabis Control Commission. Flanagans district marginally votes in favor of Democrats: Hillary Clinton got only 50 percent of the vote there last year, compared to 61 percent statewide over Trump.

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The district, which is dominated by northern Worcester communities and their conservative independents and Republicans along with a strong strain of conservative-leaning Democrats, is ripe for a GOP pick-up for the even-smaller six-member Senate GOP caucus, out of 40 seats. (There are just under three dozen Republicans out of 160 House members. )

Flanagans departure will set off another special election this fall, creating a challenge for Democrats to keep a seat the party has held since 1991 and for Republicans to seize a rare opportunity to be competitive in legislative races.

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Mass. Republicans lose a member but gain an opportunity - The Boston Globe