Hours after President Donald Trump said he wants to send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, stoking fresh concerns from the Texas business community, top Republican senators were in Laredo raising money for the GOP.
The Texas business community was already rattled by Trump’s threats to the ongoing NAFTA negotiations.
That didn’t stop the donors from giving to the senators who they see as allies in their effort to influence Trump.
Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Jerry Moran, R-Kansas., raised money in Texas Wednesday night for their party’s Senate campaign committee.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee did not respond to request for comment.
Gardner helms the NRSC in the 2018 election cycle, and Tillis is the committee’s finance chairman. Cornyn, the Senate’s second-ranking Republican, chaired the committee in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles. Moran chaired the committee in 2014.
Gerald Schwebel, executive vice president of the Laredo-based International Bank of Commerce, said donors used the opportunity to stress impatience over renegotiation of the agreement and concern about the border policy.
“For those of us who live on the border, a message of militarization is not one we're keen on,” Schwebel told the Star-Telegram Thursday.
“The objective was to share our story of what the border is all about,” he added.
Dennis Nixon, IBC president and chief executive officer, and a major donor to the GOP Senate committee, hosted the fundraiser at his Laredo ranch.
Texas GOP donors say the most pressing issue for both border community and the rest of the state is protecting the North American Free Trade Agreement. Texas business interests count NAFTA as critical to the state’s economy, and have grown increasingly anxious about negotiations in the past week.
"No question the main topic was NAFTA,” said Schwebel. “The concern is that we need to wrap up negotiations and move forward."
Trump threatened Tuesday the deal could be “in play” if Mexico did not stop a caravan of immigrants from attempting to cross the border.
Texas’s business leaders have been ramping up efforts to lobby the White House not to harm the deal, and are considering withholding their campaign contributions for his reelection.
Texas is a major fundraising state for both parties. Schwebel said the senators would continue their swing in Houston Thursday.
He viewed all four senators as Texas allies on preserving NAFTA.
Schwebel said donors also privately expressed concerns about Trump’s moves on the border.
Trump on Wednesday asked border-state governors to send National Guard troops to help stop illegal immigration.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said his state already maintains “a continuous presence of National Guard members along the border,” and “will continue to implement robust border security efforts.”
Cornyn praised the effort as “common sense way to temporarily assist law enforcement along the border.”
Schwebel said he also spoke privately with Cornyn, and said the senator assured him he’s was watching closely to make sure dispatching National Guard troops to the border sends the right message.
Andrea Drusch: 202-383-6056, @AndreaDrusch