One day after the Republican National Committee warned donors to steer clear of the Koch network, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said the rift could be politically advantageous for Democrats. | David Ryder/Getty Images Democrats delight in Koch-Trump feud

NEW ORLEANS — Democrats are salivating over President Donald Trump’s escalating feud with the powerful Koch network, hopeful it could weaken Republicans heading into the midterms.

One day after the Republican National Committee warned donors to steer clear of the Koch network, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, told POLITICO the rift could be politically advantageous for Democrats.


“Yes, yes it is,” he said. “I can’t quantify how much that’ll mean, whether that’s a dollar or $100 million.”

Inslee’s remarks, on the sidelines of the progressive gathering Netroots Nation, came as activists and Democratic Party officials here and elsewhere delighted in the infighting in the GOP.

“It’s almost as good as watching the last 'Avengers' movies!” said Jaime Harrison, associate chair of the Democratic National Committee and a former South Carolina state party chair. “Must see TV!”

Though Inslee and other Democrats were leery of overplaying the potential fallout from Trump’s tiff with the Kochs, the public infighting within the GOP was a welcome break from attention paid to divisions within the Democratic Party.

Democrats have “got to drive our own message,” Inslee emphasized, though a widening rift between Trump and the Kochs “could be helpful.”

In California, where Democrats are vying to flip several competitive House seats, state Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman called the feud “another sign of the fraying that is going on in the Republican Party and that will lead to a Democratic takeover of the House, and possibly the Senate, in November.”

The Kochs did not back Trump in 2016. But the feud between Trump and the major GOP donor group erupted over the weekend, when Koch network officials criticized Trump and announced they would not help Republican Senate hopeful Kevin Cramer in North Dakota.

In response, RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel told Republican donors in a memo Thursday, “Some groups who claim to support conservatives forgo their commitment when they decide their business interests are more important than those of the country or Party … This is unacceptable.”

