The head of the top super PAC for Senate Republicans, Steven J. Law, is stepping aside after a decade running one of the most powerful big-money groups in American politics.
Mr. Law’s decision to depart as chief executive represents a changing of the guard that coincides with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky leaving his post as Senate Republican leader. Mr. Law, who once served as Mr. McConnell’s chief of staff, oversaw the rise of the super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, and its allied nonprofit arm, One Nation, into behemoths in Republican politics.
The two groups raised $2.3 billion in the last decade, officials said, and Mr. Law became a trusted custodian of the contributions from some of the wealthiest donors in the G.O.P., including Paul Singer, Kenneth C. Griffin, Stephen A. Schwarzman and other Wall Street titans.
“He’s brilliant and honest in a type of work where you frequently find people skimming,” Mr. McConnell said of Mr. Law in an interview.
Mr. Law, who has known Mr. McConnell since 1987, is leaving the super PAC after a 2024 election cycle in which Republicans won four new Senate seats, defeating three longtime Democratic incumbents in Ohio, Montana and Pennsylvania while winning the West Virginia seat of the retiring Senator Joe Manchin III.
His departure clears the way for the incoming Republican majority leader, Senator John Thune of South Dakota, to install his own ally or trusted adviser atop the super PAC.
“It dovetails well with the change in leadership,” Mr. Law said in an interview about his decision. He added that he did not know what he would do next but said he expected to stay involved in Senate politics.
The Senate Leadership Fund grew out of a previous super PAC spearheaded by Mr. Law, Karl Rove and other Republican strategists. That previous super PAC, American Crossroads, spent heavily on the 2010 and 2012 elections.
But American Crossroads had pledged not to get involved in Republican primaries, and Mr. Law recalled how Mr. McConnell had complained at a private dinner after 2012 about how weak nominees had cost Republicans winnable seats.
“Steven, you guys have got to smarten up and make sure the right people are nominated,” Mr. McConnell said at the time, according to Mr. Law.
They did just that, forming the Senate Leadership Fund ahead of the 2014 elections and intervening to promote stronger candidates — an approach that at times put the group at odds with the Republican base, which viewed the party establishment with deep skepticism.
“We have one goal and that’s to win elections,” Mr. Law said. “We’re entirely ecumenical in the way we direct our support.”
As Mr. McConnell put it, “We were not on an ideological mission. We wanted to win.”
Allies of House Republicans formed a similar super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, and Democrats have similar super PACs, as well. The longtime leader of the Congressional Leadership Fund, Dan Conston, also announced he was stepping down this month, meaning the top Republican super PACs allied with both chambers of Congress will have new leaders.
Mr. McConnell has repeatedly been at odds with President-elect Donald J. Trump over politics, policies and the people each one wants to join the Senate.
“In the Trump era, I do think there’s been some more difficulty in terms of getting quality candidates,” Mr. McConnell said. “I think loyalty to the subsequent presidential nominee became extremely important to him. And we had some situations, like in 2022, where we were simply stuck with people that couldn’t win in Arizona and Georgia and New Hampshire.”
The Senate Leadership Fund has backed some key figures in the MAGA movement, including the incoming vice president, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, in his 2022 Senate race, plunging tens of millions of dollars into his campaign.
“There was a candidate running in Ohio who was a terrible fund-raiser and was not a particularly effective candidate and the rest of the Republican ticket is winning by — from 18 to 24 points,” Mr. Rove said. “But JD Vance gets dragged across the finish line by Steven Law.”
Mr. Rove said the goal in forming the Senate Leadership Fund was to make it a permanent part of the G.O.P. infrastructure and he credited Mr. Law for its success. He said that in the last decade, “there has not been a single Republican victory in a highly contested Senate race” that Mr. Law and the Senate Leadership Fund did not play a critical role in.
Mr. Law laughed a bit looking back at all the money he has raised from billionaires and multimillionaires to help Republicans win.
“I would like to say we raised it in small amounts,” he said. “But that’s not true. We raised in large amounts.”
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