Republicans Say the NRSC Isn’t Taking the Midterms Seriously

For Sen. Tim Scott’s birthday last year, the executive director of Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, Jennifer DeCasper, required all of her staff to take time off work and board a rented bus.

They were going to surprise Scott, the organization’s chairman, at the airport.

DeCasper had the group make a banner and signs celebrating their boss, and the whole event was filmed. DeCasper had staff edit the video and then posted it on her personal X account.

The video, which was widely circulated and ridiculed among GOP senators and consultants, is indicative of what Republicans believe this year’s National Republican Senatorial Committee has become: unserious.

NOTUS talked with over a dozen Senate GOP aides, strategists and other sources with knowledge of the NRSC. They described an organization that has devolved into dysfunction. Both senators and the White House are growing more incensed with the campaign arm by the day, the sources say.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

While Republicans have a litany of complaints about how the NRSC is being run this cycle, the majority of their grievances land at the feet of two people: Scott and DeCasper.

President Donald Trump’s team has been upset with NRSC leadership since before the current Congress began, two sources told NOTUS. They believed they were not properly read into hiring decisions at the committee, and they continue to be upset that some at the NRSC routinely appear to veer off message, the sources said.

Senate Republicans and campaign consultants say they don’t think Scott is taking his job seriously, either, sources said.

Unlike NRSC chairs in previous cycles, Scott doesn’t make candidate-recruitment visits or fundraising calls, instead leaving those responsibilities to others on the committee, according to two sources familiar with the matter. One source noted that Scott does meet with recruits when they come to town.

Republicans who work with the committee also often find Scott and DeCasper to be hard to reach and uncommunicative, sources said.

One veteran Republican strategist who talks regularly with the NRSC said their interactions with the committee “are the most unprofessional I have ever seen.”

When asked for comment, the NRSC provided NOTUS with quotes from three former NRSC executive directors, Kevin McLaughlin, Ward Baker and Rob Collins, and Sen. Bernie Moreno.

Collins said in the statement that “under Senator Scott and Jennifer DeCasper’s leadership, the NRSC is tuning out the distractions to safeguard our Senate majority” and added that the “GOP’s PTA mom’s should check their outrage.”

Baker commended the group’s fundraising and said that “Senate Republicans are in a strong position to defend our Majority.”

McLaughlin said in the statement: “Jennifer and the entire NRSC team has done — by any standard — an incredible job. They have raised record amounts of money, cleared the field in numerous races, and put Republicans in a position to not only win, but expand our majority in 2026.”

Moreno, a NRSC vice chair who’s running to chair the committee next cycle, said the committee under Scott “is a model of excellence, and I’m grateful to play a role in supporting these vital efforts to keep and expand our Senate majority. Anyone who says or implies otherwise is either ignorant of what’s going on, has a personal agenda, or is just plain stupid.”

But this year’s evolving Senate campaign map is only amplifying Republicans’ fears. Democrats have recruited top candidates in battleground states like North Carolina, Maine, Ohio and Alaska, and Trump’s approval ratings have sunk. Democrats need to gain four seats to win a majority in the Senate, and they’re increasingly bullish on races in traditionally Republican states like Texas and Iowa.

Republicans who spoke to NOTUS say Scott has struggled to manage expectations. Last year, Scott told Axios there’s a possibility that Senate Republicans would gain two seats after the midterms. Now, the group is playing defense in several Republican-held seats.

Republicans say they’ve also been baffled by Scott’s messaging on winnable races. They believe the chairman is “injecting pessimism with donors,” as one source put it, when it comes to what many view as the party’s best pick-up opportunity: Georgia.

Last month, Scott said that Michigan was the party’s best chance at a pickup opportunity, leaving just about everyone scratching their heads, since Republicans overwhelmingly believe their best pickup opportunity is in Georgia.

A source familiar with the matter pointed to their fundraising as evidence the committee was not in chaos given “the highest major donor and PAC raise, the lowest burn rate, and most direct investment income” compared to committees past.

The group also has $25 million on hand, higher than the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee which has $24 million on hand, per Federal Election Committee records.

Some veteran Republican operatives have been frustrated by the influence of Scott’s longtime advisers within the NRSC, saying they mismanaged the senator’s failed 2024 presidential bid and should not have such key positions for 2026.

DeCasper has been a focus of ire, the sources told NOTUS. DeCasper ran Scott’s short-lived 2024 campaign and has been a longtime aide to the South Carolina senator. The two are almost inseparable, sources tell NOTUS. Within the organization and across the Hill, DeCasper is viewed as a micromanager and a poor communicator, who, along with Nate Brand — an outside adviser to Scott — tightly controls access to the chairman, five sources told NOTUS.

Republicans both inside and outside the NRSC have run into problems because of DeCasper’s tight control, they say. There have been weeks when DeCasper has disappeared without explanation or warning, three sources told NOTUS, making it difficult to get a hold of Scott.

DeCasper’s influence over Scott’s operation comes through in other ways, too: Her sister is now chief of staff in Scott’s Senate office.

One Republican consultant working on races this year told NOTUS that they haven’t talked to DeCasper more than once this whole cycle. Even when they have calls with the NRSC, the consultant said, neither DeCasper nor Scott is ever on the line.

One event, sources said, points to DeCasper not taking her job as a high-ranking staffer seriously. During the early days of the cycle, DeCasper would bring her small dog into the office and, on at least one occasion, let it walk around on the conference table during a meeting, a source familiar with the matter told NOTUS, leaving those in attendance taken aback.

The administration’s frustration with the NRSC continued to grow when Brand published a Substack post criticizing White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ comments to Vanity Fair, two sources told NOTUS.

“There is a collective refrain: ‘We warned you,’” Brand wrote in his Substack about Wiles’ decision to allow Vanity Fair to do a profile. “The episode is yet another reminder of why conservative media matters. … It’s like watching a buddy get back with his monster of an ex. We all knew it was not going to end well.”

And Scott — who is the sole Black Republican in the Senate — was the first senator to publicly criticize Trump’s Truth Social post depicting former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as monkeys. On X, he called the video the “most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” infuriating Trump officials.

Trump officials were also taken aback by DeCasper when, back in 2024, she wore a hoodie while traveling with Trump and Scott aboard Trump Force One, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

But the frustrations from the White House and Republicans across D.C. at this point go far beyond any one irritation or blowup.

“I have never seen so much rank incompetence, in just mind-boggling fashion,” said the veteran Republican strategist in communication with the committee. “They’re woefully unprepared for what is coming down the pike.”