Donald Trump set to headline high-dollar fundraiser in Aspen
Aug 5, 2024 from Colorado Politics
Photo: President Donald Trump waits on stage to speak at a campaign rally on July 31, 2024, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is slated to attend a sold-out, high-dollar fundraiser in Aspen on Saturday hosted by more than a dozen wealthy GOP donors, according to invitations to the event.
Billed as a dinner and roundtable with the former president, the fundraiser features tickets priced from $25,000 to $500,000 per couple.
An invitation to the fundraiser was posted online by the Republican Party of Orange County. The event was first reported by The Aspen Times.
It will be Trump's first publicly announced visit to Colorado this election cycle. His most recent appearance in the state was a February 2020 rally in Colorado Springs.
Among the hosts of the fundraiser are Denver-based homebuilder Larry Mizel and his wife, Carol. Mizel, the founder of MDC Holdings and a 2016 co-chair of Trump's Colorado campaign, hosted fundraisers for Trump in Denver and Aspen in 2016. One of Colorado's leading contributors to national Republican candidates and committees, Mizel gave maximum donations to former Vice President Mike Pence's presidential campaign before Pence withdrew from the race and Trump claimed the GOP nomination.
After the Colorado Republican Party formally endorsed him earlier this year, Trump defeated former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in March by 30 percentage points to win Colorado's Super Tuesday presidential primary. Both times Trump has been on the state's general election ballot, however, the Republican lost to the Democratic nominees, trailing Hillary Clinton in 2016 and President Joe Biden in 2020.
Trump and his vice presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, face Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, who is expected to name her running mate this week. The race for the White House took an unexpected turn two weeks ago when Biden announced his withdrawal and endorsed Harris, who clinched her party's nomination last week.
Other hosts of the Aspen fundraiser include Houston-based Jeff Hildebrand, the billionaire founder of Hillcorp Energy Company, and his wife, Mindy, who own the Aspen ranch that used to belong to John Denver; investor and former ambassador Duke Buchan III, a former national GOP finance chair, and his wife, Hannah; and, Andrew McKenna Jr., a former chair of the Illinois Republican Party and candidate for U.S. senator and governor, whose father chaired McDonald's and owned a share of the Chicago Bears.
Neither the Trump campaign nor the Colorado Republican Party responded to requests for comment.
According to invitations, the event will raise funds for Trump 47 Committee, a joint fundraising committee that splits proceeds between Trump's presidential campaign, the Save America Trump-aligned political action committee, the Republican National Committee and 42 state Republican parties' federal accounts, though the Colorado GOP isn't listed among them.
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