Johnson announces $20 million-plus fundraising haul

Speaker Mike Johnson hauled in more than $20 million during the first quarter of the year, his office will announce Thursday in a report shared first with POLITICO.

The Louisiana Republican has worked aggressively to meet high expectations of him on the fundraising circuit, and his high intake during his first full quarter in the job indicates success breaking through with high-dollars donors his party needs to hang onto the House majority this fall.

So far, Johnson has traveled to more than 20 states for fundraising and campaigning with GOP candidates since he won the gavel in October, according to his office.

"In less than six months as Speaker, we have hit the ground running to ensure House Republicans will have the resources necessary to win in battlegrounds across America — and we cannot slow down now,” Johnson said in a statement, while also thanking supporters of the House GOP's efforts.

One of the party's biggest worries when Johnson claimed the speakership was whether he could keep up the torrid fundraising pace of his predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Johnson's persona may be less back-slapping than McCarthy's, but his robust first quarter indicates that he's making progress on that front. The speaker previously told POLITICO that he's grateful for McCarthy's help connecting him with thick-wallet donors.

But in a sign of a challenging election cycle to come for Johnson's conference, the House Majority PAC — the super PAC dedicated to electing House Democrats — out-raised its GOP counterpart, the Congressional Leadership Fund, during the first quarter of the year. Over the election cycle thus far, House GOP-connected PACs remain comfortably in the fundraising lead over similar Democratic PACs.