‘The Vice President Asked Me to Call’: JD Vance Gives RNC Fundraising Boost

"The vice president asked me to call you.”

That’s a new pitch line Republican National Committee finance operatives are deploying this cycle, thanks to JD Vance’s unprecedented role as the party’s finance chairman — the first sitting vice president to hold the position.

President Trump blessed the arrangement last March, tapping his second in command as the party’s chief fundraiser. Now, as the campaign season accelerates, Vance is ready to prove his worth.

The vice president will headline high-dollar events in Manhattan on February 17 and McLean, Va., on March 3, National Review has learned. The New York fundraiser alone is expected to net more than $2 million.

The events reflect Vance’s aggressive fundraising cadence — roughly twice monthly — in his dual role as vice president and head of the RNC’s fundraising apparatus. Beyond raising cash, the White House plans to deploy him on the road early and often to energize low-propensity GOP voters who historically only turn out when Trump himself is on the ballot.

Since taking the finance chair role last year, Vance has headlined events in Texas, Atlanta, San Diego, Jackson Hole, and Miami. Second Lady Usha Vance frequently joins him, including at a November fundraiser at Blackberry Farm in Tennessee.

RNC Chairman Joe Gruters calls Vance an “incredible draw” who makes his job “a thousand times easier.”

“The guy is a home run,” Gruters told National Review in a wide-ranging interview inside the national party's D.C. headquarters in December. “It’s one thing for me to make calls. It’s another thing to have an event with the vice president.”

Republicans will need every dollar. Historical trends and recent polling suggest 2026 could be brutal — public sentiment is souring on the administration’s handling of the economy and immigration.

But the GOP’s fundraising edge has tempered private pessimism in Washington. Republicans entered 2026 hundreds of millions ahead of Democrats. The RNC holds $95 million in cash versus the DNC’s $14 million on hand and $17.5 million in debt. And that's on top of the tens of millions more that Republicans have in other House, Senate, and Trump-aligned fundraising groups.

Perhaps most consequential for Republicans: the Trump-aligned super PAC MAGA Inc. started the year with $304 million banked, though how that money will be deployed remains unclear.

The party’s hope: Vance and Trump can pad RNC coffers enough to avoid a repeat of 2018, when backlash to Trump’s first term cost Republicans 40 House seats.

Behind the scenes, Vance’s role also builds crucial donor relationships. In addition to "helping the president raise money" ahead of the 2026 midterms, Vance's role as finance chair is also "giving him an opportunity to meet these donors," said Gruters.

His face time with Trump’s network during the 2026 cycle gives him a major advantage for a prospective 2028 presidential run by laying groundwork for donor support nationwide that could separate him from other would-be GOP contenders.

But 2028 is distant. Vance’s immediate priority is helping Trump and the party defy historical gravity in 2026.

“The party in power normally gets absolutely annihilated,” Gruters told NR late last year. Yet despite headwinds, he believes a robust Trump campaign schedule, a midterm convention, and the early fundraising advantage can stem the bleeding, thanks in part to Vance.

“If we do the exact same thing we’ve been doing, we will lose like every other incumbent party,” the chairman said. “We have to be different, bold, think outside the box. That’s why everything you’re seeing — from redistricting to superior finances to the convention — will hopefully lead to victory.”