House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is headed to New York this weekend to fundraise alongside the CEO of the world’s largest private equity firm for battleground congressional Republicans whose reelection will be key to preserving his majority.

What You Need To Know

  • Speaker Mike Johnson is headed to New York this weekend to fundraise alongside the CEO of the world’s largest private equity firm for battleground GOP House members whose reelection will be key to preserving his Republican majority
  • On Sunday, according to an invite obtained by Politico, Johnson will attend a Manhattan fundraiser alongside New York’s entire House GOP delegation, minus Rep. George Santos
  • The event will be hosted by Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman and top lobbyist Wayne Berman. At the helm of the world’s first $1 trillion private equity firm, Schwarzman is a longtime GOP megadonor who has poured tens of millions into Republican campaigns
  • That same day, Johnson will head just north of New York City, into the wealthy Westchester County community of Bronxville for a fundraiser specifically for Rep. Mike Lawler, one of the freshman Republican House members in battleground districts

Johnson, an unexpected unity candidate chosen by House Republicans after three weeks of leaderless chaos last month, is working quickly to show he can be an effective fundraiser. His immediate predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, was prolific at filling his members’ coffers with donors’ cash — freshman Long Island Rep. Nick LaLota, whose district is closely divided, called McCarthy a “hall of famer” earlier this month.

And New York is proving to be a crucial state in the battle for control of the House next November, as it did in 2022 when Republicans there outperformed their counterparts across the country and helped secure a slim majority that Johnson has now been tasked with preserving. Six freshman Republicans represent districts in the state that voted for President Joe Biden in 2020. Each GOP House member from New York voted for Johnson for speaker, a decision Democrats are now using to attack them.

On Sunday, according to an invite obtained by Politico, Johnson will attend a Manhattan fundraiser for a joint fundraising committee, Grow the Majority NY, alongside New York’s entire House GOP delegation, minus Rep. George Santos who is openly despised by his state’s fellow first-term Republicans and is facing an expulsion vote this week.

The event will be hosted by Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman and top lobbyist Wayne Berman. At the helm of the world’s first $1 trillion private equity firm, Schwarzman is a longtime GOP megadonor who has poured tens of millions into Republican campaigns. 

At Schwarzman and Berman’s fundraiser, the price of admission ranges from $3,000 to $100,000. Money raised will benefit Johnson’s campaign and leadership political action committee, the campaigns of each N.Y. House Republican, the National Republican Congressional Committee and a fund for the eventual opponent of freshman Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan in his central Hudson Valley district

That same day, Johnson will head to the wealthy Westchester County community of Bronxville, just north of New York City, into for a fundraiser specifically for Rep. Mike Lawler, one of the freshman Republican House members in battleground districts. Lawler, who beat then-chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Sean Patrick Maloney in 2022, faces a tough reelection battle in a district just north of the city that voted for Biden by 10 percentage points in 2020. 

“Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to hear directly from Speaker Johnson and Congressman Lawler about the current state of the House, and House Republicans' plans for 2024,” a Lawler campaign email reads. The fundraiser will be hosted by Tony Sayegh, a former senior advisor in the Trump White House and veteran of New York Republican politics.

“Far-right House Speaker Mike Johnson is dropping in to NY-17 to fundraise for” Mike Lawler, the left-wing Working Families Party wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Lawler can get on cable news and try to mislead his constituents about being a moderate all he wants, but behind closed doors, it’s clear he’s just another MAGA extremist.”

Lawler received significant support from McCarthy through multiple fundraisers and direct appeals to influential Orthodox Jewish leaders in Rockland County, returning the favor in kind when he became a leading voice condemning the far-right Republicans who orchestrated McCarthy’s ouster. But Lawler appears to have earned the new speaker’s attention quickly, as well. He voted for Johnson after weeks of failed speaker candidates and his district is on the short-list of top priorities for House GOP leadership in their fight to keep their majority next year.

Johnson will reportedly also be in New York this weekend to attend the National Republican Campaign Committee’s donor retreat, according to the Messenger. Johnson’s trip will come fresh off a Florida fundraiser at the home of Rep. Vern Buchanan on Monday night where he reportedly helped raise $1.4 million. 

Unlike McCarthy, the relatively low-profile House leader is also virtually unknown to the American public — a recent Siena College poll found 53% of New York voters had no clue who he was. That has left Democrats struggling to tag Republicans for their association with the fourth-term Louisiana congressman as they did with the higher profile McCarthy, and Republicans did for nearly two decades with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. 

For now, they’ve settled on “MAGA Mike,” emphasizing his loyalty to former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement and right-wing policies that Democrats are describing as “extremist.” Democratic National Committee press secretary Sarafina Chitika called him Trump’s “minion” on Tuesday and said he “marched alongside the extreme MAGA movement” in voting against the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act in 2021. Johnson touted improvements to a Florida airport on Monday that were funded by the act.

“Mike Lawler. Marc Molinaro. Anthony D’Esposito. Brandon Williams. NY's House Republicans are hosting a fundraiser for MAGA Mike Johnson,” wrote Brooklyn and Queens Rep. Nydia Velázquez on X, naming four New York Republicans in battleground districts. “No matter what they say, the proof is undeniable – they are in lockstep with the extremist Republicans working to take away your rights.”

Molinaro represents a district that stretches across the Hudson Valley, the Capital region and the Southern Tier that voted for Biden by over 4% in 2020. D’Esposito’s Long Island district went for the president by over 14% and Williams’ Syracuse-area district preferred Biden over Trump by around 7%.

Velázquez notably yelled “bye-bye” when Lawler voted for Johnson on the House floor in October, later explaining to City & State New York that “we’re going to wrap around their neck the ascension and the election of Mike Johnson. Someone who is as extreme as they come.”

New York was described as “THE battleground for House Republicans in 2022” by Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking member of House GOP leadership and the representative for New York’s northernmost counties. She pledged to raise $100 million for New York congressional races next year and is set to appear alongside Johnson at the Manhattan fundraiser on Sunday, according to the invite. A PAC associated with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Brooklyn Democrat, pledged $45 million to New York races earlier this year.

“Increasingly vulnerable Nick LaLota, Anthony D’Esposito, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, and Brandon Williams are now relying on a MAGA extremist to pad their campaign coffers,” DCCC spokesperson Ellie Dougherty said in a statement last week. “We have two words for these New York Republicans: good luck.”