Amid dwindling support for bankrolling NATO’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, particularly among Republicans in the US Congress, a non-profit is apparently struggling to alter that trajectory.
As Congress appears to be heading for a tussle over spending when it resumes work in early September after recess, with Ukraine aid a particularly contentious issue, a project called “Republicans for Ukraine” has raised its head. Conceived by the conservative non-profit Defending Democracy Together, it hopes to use the occasion when the 2024 Republican presidential candidates face off for the first time at the primary debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 23, to bring about a turnaround, US media reported.
President Joe Biden has vowed to prop up the regime in Kiev for as long as it takes, yet increasingly more Republican politicians, along with a growing portion of American society, are balking at the idea of sinking ever more “off the charts” sums into Ukraine aid. This is where the aforementioned project comes in, launching a $2 million campaign that will include advertisements airing nationally on cable, network TV, and YouTube. The cornerstone of the ad effort is to feature “everyday Republicans” ostensibly supporting Ukraine, contrary to all the recent public opinion surveys. Those behind the effort are thus hoping to garner grassroots appeal.
“We feel some sense of urgency. Broadly, we do focus groups with Republican voters and we have noticed a drop-off in support for what we think is a traditional Republican issue,” Gunner Ramer, a spokesperson for the project, was cited by US media as saying.
The group is described as being led by so-called “Never Trump” Republicans Bill Kristol and Sarah Longwell, who are prepared to spend big in an effort to shrink ex- President Donald Trump’s base. Their battle cry has been that “America First” policies espoused by the 45th POTUS have “eroded traditional Republican values.” Accordingly, the group plans to tout funneling the war effort in Ukraine as a "traditional, conservative, Republican value," judging by what they are saying. Specifically, the ads in question will reportedly feature “direct-to-camera testimonials” from Republican voters.
The money set aside for the campaign, running until the end of the year, will also pay for digital YouTube ads, according to the report. Furthermore, for a more "personal" approach, faces of Republican voters will be splashed across 10 billboards set up throughout Milwaukee.
Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, the campaign that “Republicans for Ukraine” are launching is heralded as just the first in a series of attempts to boost seriously flagging GOP support for Ukraine.
One of the factors that ostensibly prompted the $2 million ad effort was “alarming” recent polling data that “points to the fact that the Republican Party has just fundamentally changed,” Gunner Ramer said.
Spending Showdown & Waning Ukraine Support
The above-cited ad effort comes as the US and its allies have vowed to continue to prop up Ukraine for as long as it takes. Washington recently announced its next package of security assistance to aid Ukraine, valued at $200 million. According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, it is being executed from the previously authorized Presidential Drawdown Authority, and incorporates “air defense munitions, artillery rounds, anti-armor capabilities, and additional mine-clearing equipment.” But within the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives there have long been growing signs of resistance to more funding for Kiev.
After the US debt ceiling deal was finally hammered out in early June and a government default dodged, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he didn't want to pursue an additional spending package above levels set down in the bill signed by President Biden that also curbs federal spending. McCarthy previously went on record as saying that Kiev should not receive a “blank check.” His spokesperson has since reiterated this, telling media:
"A Republican-led House will not rubber-stamp any blank-check funding requests... Rather, the administration’s emergency funding requests must be reviewed and scrutinized on their merits, consistent with the practice and principles of our majority.”
Ex-POTUS Donald Trump, a Republican hopeful in the 2024 race to the White House, last month threatened to halt war funding, saying that the US should “refuse to authorize a single additional shipment of our depleted weapons stockpiles.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has also been open about his skepticism of the funding. Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly censured the US role in the proxy war against Russia. “Congress should not authorize another penny for Ukraine... Ukraine is not the 51st state of the United States of America,” said GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Last month, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) voiced his concern when 70 House Republicans cast their votes for an amendment to a defense policy bill that would have prohibited future assistance to Ukraine. Furthermore, 89 House Republicans supported a separate amendment that suggested slashing $300 million in Ukraine funding.
Bearing this rift in mind, the problem is that Congress will be trying to fund the government before the September 30 deadline. With Conservatives, in particular, railing against the Ukraine aid sinkhole, there is the matter of how much of the Biden administration's request for emergency funding for disaster relief, Ukraine aid, and border security would make its way into a continuing resolution which funds the government for a limited time to avert a government shutdown.
The sentiments starting to prevail in American society also mirror this waning support for Ukraine funding. A poll conducted by SSRS news agency from July 1-31 among 1,279 adults revealed that over half of Americans (55 percent) are against Congress authorizing more funds for Ukraine. Fifty-one percent say that Washington has done enough to help Kiev, while 48 percent disagree. The latter number is 14 percentage points down from the 62% of those who felt the US should have been doing more, according to a poll conducted in the early days of Russia's special military operation. Furthermore, the poll found that 71 percent of Republicans would want Congress to stop sending more assistance for the authorities in Kiev.