Trump camp warns GOP lobbyists: We’re watching what you do in the DC primary

Donald Trump’s campaign wants Republican lobbyists in D.C. to know: If they don’t vote in this Sunday’s primary, they won’t get access should the former president end up back in the White House.

“If you don’t bother voting, don’t bother calling,” said one Trump campaign official, who was granted anonymity to speak about campaign strategy.

Bryan Lanza, a Washington, D.C.-based Republican lobbyist who served on Trump’s 2016 campaign and his White House transition team, said that “The Trump campaign is very cognizant of who makes up the GOP primary voters in DC.” He added, “The worst thing for them would be not showing up.”

The ultimatum constitutes a blunt threat toward the influence-peddling community, one that is highly unusual for a presidential campaign but fits the more publicly hardball model that Trump has often applied to governance.

While the D.C. Republican Party ultimately maintains control over the voter data, the Trump campaign said they expected that information to be uploaded to Data Trust, a voter file collection system used throughout the Republican Party. At that point they’d see which individuals cast ballots but not which candidates they cast ballots for.

However, Patrick Mara, the chair of the D.C. GOP, said it would not be collecting digital data on the vote and it was unclear if they would share the paper files with Data Trust or the Republican National Committee.

A Trump campaign official said they anticipated that the DC GOP would provide the data eventually.

“I can’t imagine there not being any record of who voted in the DC primary. If those records are kept and inaccessible there will be serious repercussions,” the Trump campaign official said. “The swamp is living up to its name.”

Trump’s relationship with the lobbying industry has evolved since he burst onto the political scene. When he assumed office in January 2017, he had few connections with K Street. Major companies, in turn, scrambled to find ways to influence his administration, sending millions of dollars to the few aides and confidants who enjoyed access.

Over time, Trump-allied lobbyists began populating firms in addition to starting their own. Campaign finance data from this cycle shows that more D.C. donors who are registered lobbyists have given to former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley than Trump, although the total number is relatively small. But the Trump campaign's push for lobbyists to vote in the primary suggests it suspects K Street has more Trump-friendly voters than Haley-friendly ones.

Some K Streeters believe that, as polls continue to show Trump leading President Joe Biden, holdouts in the lobbying community will coalesce even further around Trump.

“I feel an entirely different sense of optimism, of lack of fear of the uncertainty of how President Trump is viewed by business and corporate America,” said Brian Ballard, a prominent Trump-aligned lobbyist. Trump support from K Street, Ballard added, is “much better than 2016 and even better than 2020.”

But the Trump campaign’s push for lobbyist support also underscores the importance it is placing on the typically sleepy D.C. primary itself. With Trump hoping for a clean sweep of the primaries, the campaign is looking to lock in as many votes as possible even in locations, like the capital, where anti-Trump sentiment is pronounced. According to D.C.’s Board of Elections, Republicans account for only 5 percent of the city’s registered voters. President Joe Biden won 92 percent of the vote there in the 2020 presidential election.

And that means turning out the GOP lobbyist set that dots neighborhoods like Navy Yard, Glover Park and Georgetown, and who account for a portion of the city’s more than 22,000 Republican voters. The Trump campaign has sent out a flurry of text messages over the course of the week trying to prod Washingtonians to cast ballots at the Madison Hotel on 15th Street Northwest, where voting is taking place Friday through Sunday.

“It’s Here! The D.C. GOP Primary is TODAY at the Madison Hotel. Don’t delay. GET OUT AND VOTE FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP,” said one text message.

Benny Johnson, a conservative social media personality, on Friday posted a picture on X, formerly known as Twitter, of a D.C. Metro rider thumbing through a voter pamphlet with an ad on the back reading, “PRESIDENT TRUMP NEEDS YOUR VOTE!”

But a win in D.C. is no sure thing for the former president. During the 2016 Republican primary, Trump finished a distant third, behind Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

And Haley, who is still trying to get her first primary win, is also making a play for D.C. On Friday, she held an event at the Madison Hotel at which she was introduced by the chair of the city’s Republican Party, and which was attended by a few hundred people. Her campaign had a pair of tables set up on the ground floor of the hotel, and her supporters were handing out T-shirts.

Whether Haley prevails on Sunday was, to a degree, immaterial for some Republicans on K Street, one of whom mused that it would be a self-inflicted wound to not make it known that they were fully supportive of Trump’s campaign.

“Any Republican lobbyist that is withholding support at this point is living in an alternate universe,” said a Republican lobbyist and former House Republican leadership aide.

Natalie Allison and Jessica Piper contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article said that campaigns can access this year’s D.C. GOP presidential primary voter rolls from the District of Columbia’s Board of Elections, after an official with the board told POLITICO that was the case. That official subsequently acknowledged that they were wrong.