I spoke to Maggie Haberman for her New York Times piece with Michael Bender on the general election crosscurrents facing Republican candidates as it relates to Donald Trump.

“The optimal scenario for Republicans is for Trump to remain at arm’s length — supportive, but not in ways that overshadow the candidate or the contrast,” said Liam Donovan, a Republican strategist and a former top aide at the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Mr. Donovan, as well as consultants and staff members working for Trump-backed Senate candidates, said the former president could be most helpful, if he chose, by providing support from his powerful fund-raising machine.

“A big part of the problem is that these nominees emerged from messy fields where the party has been slow to unify,” Mr. Donovan said. “But to fix what ails, what these G.O.P. candidates need isn’t a Trump rally, it’s a MAGA money bomb.”

Read the full piece here.

I spoke to Matt Zeitlin for a Grid News story looking at Democrats’ summer political rebound.

The obvious reason is the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, triggering restrictive anti-abortion laws across the country and reactive ballot referendums in states like Kansas and Michigan.

But there’s another story to tell. The combination of gas prices peaking and the Dobbs decision coming down at nearly the exact same time “synced up in the most optimal way imaginable for Democrats,” Republican lobbyist Liam Donovan told Grid.

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The decline in gas prices “leaves Republicans in a weird spot where they don’t have the same cudgels,” Donovan said, while the Dobbs decision means “they’re on their heels in other respects.”

Read the full piece here.

I spoke to Shane Goldmacher for his New York Times piece on money woes at the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the preemptive finger-pointing heading into the home stretch.

“The spending wouldn’t matter if the polling numbers looked better,” said Liam Donovan, a Republican lobbyist and N.R.S.C. donor. “To the extent the red wave is receding, people look for someone to blame.”

Read the full piece here.

I spoke to Mike Warren for his CNN piece with Dan Merica and Gabby Orr on the campaign cash crunch for Peter Thiel’s senate picks and how it impacts national GOP resource allocation.

Thiel’s $15 million super PAC investments helped boost Ohio’s J.D. Vance and Arizona’s Blake Mastersin their competitive primaries earlier this year, with the California billionaire even influencing former President Donald Trump‘s decision to endorse both candidates.

But since the two candidates won their respective nominations, Thiel has not stepped up with additional investments as Vance and Masters have struggled to raise money on their own — while both have been massively outraised by their Democratic rivals. The disparity has prompted Republican observers to question why Thiel has so far refused to help his chosen candidates in the general election through a big donation to a super PAC.

“This is a Thiel problem that has a Thiel solution,” said Liam Donovan, a Republican lobbyist and strategist. “Anybody that emerged from these primaries with 30% was going to need help. The difference here is there’s a patron that has the capacity to help.”

Read the full piece here.

I spoke to Jeff Stein of the Washington Post about Democrats’ external concessions to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) as part of a broader reconciliation deal, both legislative and regulatory.

The agreement appears to have been the only way to secure Manchin’s vote for the broader climate deal. Manchin had voiced concerns about approving hundreds of billions of dollars in government subsidies for energy projects that could be defeated by red tape or climate lawsuits, and said the United States must do much more to avoid its dependence on authoritarian petrostates.

“Manchin holds all the cards here, and this is his ante,” said Liam Donovan, a GOP political strategist. “Democrats can only do so much under the reconciliation rules, so they inevitably have to look beyond the scope of the bill to seal the deal.”

Read the full piece here.