WASHINGTON — On the day of House Democrats’ first public impeachment hearing into President Trump this week, as leaders of some of the conservative movement’s most prominent organizations dialed into a briefing call hosted by the White House to coordinate their message, their activists were hard at work.
The groups had sent out specific marching orders to the hundreds of thousands of members of their network: Follow and elevate these key Republican lawmakers on Twitter. Circulate these talking points among your friends and on social media. Call your elected officials and tell them not to support impeachment. Maybe most important: Donate now to support the cause.
Some of the nation’s leading conservative groups — the Club For Growth, FreedomWorks, Citizens United, and Tea Party Patriots — have locked arms to serve as an unofficial war room for the president during the impeachment inquiry, the third such proceeding in modern history, but the first of the social media age. The coalition of more than 100 organizations, including traditional conservative fund-raisers and public relations firms, is banking on a coordinated divide-and-conquer strategy that seeks to harness its grass-roots networks’ outrage — and raise money crucial to its own survival.
Organized by Jenny Beth Martin, a co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, the effort follows a familiar pattern in Washington, powered by the muscle memory of epic partisan fights of the past. Those include the battle over the Supreme Court confirmation of Brett M. Kavanaugh, and to a lesser extent, the confirmation of Neil M. Gorsuch, as well as the clash over the enactment of the Affordable Care Act.
“You see that there is energy among the grass-roots donors and supporters of the president,” David Bossie, the president of Citizens United, said in an interview. “The campaign, as well as outside groups who are helping the president, needs to utilize that — both to raise their voices as well as to raise revenue to continue the fight.”
The conservative movement, he added, “is very good at coming together at important moments in time to make sure that we are putting all of the resources and intellectual firepower that we have in the most efficient manner possible.”
Each group has taken on a different front in the fight, coordinating through conference calls held multiple times a week. Some have flooded television sets and the internet with advertisements. Others have mobilized their followers into defending Mr. Trump on social media, while still others have encouraged their supporters to contact lawmakers and urge them to support the president.
The Club For Growth has spent over $200,000 on advertisements, most of which upbraid politically vulnerable House Democrats for supporting the impeachment inquiry. They have also trained their fire on Republican lawmakers who have signaled an openness to impeachment. Last month, the group released polling showing that Representative Mark Amodei of Nevada, who said he supported the inquiry and then walked it back, would lose in a primary race.
After Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, criticized the president for his conduct in the Ukraine affair, the group ran television ads in his home state, as well as nationally online, calling Mr. Romney a “Democrat secret asset” who is “plotting to take down President Trump with impeachment.”
“The goal there was to signal to him and to all the other Republicans on the Hill, that if you go that route, there is going to be a significant backlash,” David McIntosh, the president of the Club for Growth, said in an interview. The ad, the group said, performed better than almost any of its other digital campaigns, prompting tens of thousands of new members to sign up.
Leaders insist that their efforts are intended to bolster the White House’s message, not to compensate for any void there, although Mr. Trump’s team has often appeared to struggle to coalesce behind a communication strategy to confront the impeachment process.
As often as twice a day, the groups dial in to background briefing conference calls hosted by the White House’s Office of Public Liaison so that surrogates can stay attuned to talking points and ask questions. And on their own conference calls to internally coordinate, Republican congressional aides from both the House and Senate join the coalition’s conference calls to brief participants on the view from Capitol Hill.
Some of the groups entering the impeachment fray might appear to be unlikely defenders. The Club For Growth, for example, a powerful conservative group focused on economics, fiercely opposed Mr. Trump’s bid for president in 2016.
“It’s a logical, obvious opportunistic reaction,” Trevor Potter, the president of the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan campaign finance organization, said in an interview, noting that both parties used emotionally charged, high-stakes moments to fund-raise.
Whether the impeachment inquiry concludes with Mr. Trump still president, or Vice President Mike Pence, a traditional fiscal conservative, having ascended to the Oval Office, conservative groups see only upsides, Mr. Potter said.
“They’re not looking at the long-term outcome,” he said. “They’re saying, ‘This is an opportunity to raise money.’”
FreedomWorks, an organization focused on promoting limited government and lower taxes, has taken the lead on messaging on social media, serving as a rapid response channel. The Tea Party Patriots encourages Republican activists to join the “Trump Defense Team,” offering weekly action items that can include reading the memos assembled by congressional Republicans on the committees leading impeachment, following the Republican members of the Intelligence Committee on Twitter, and listening to the impeachment radio show hosted by Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former senior adviser.
“We want to make sure that if people want to get in a discussion, they understand what the testimony is about,” Ms. Martin said. “They have more than just what they’re seeing in the news. It’s important they understand what’s going on and can read it firsthand.”
Local activists can then pass those talking points to their friends and use them in local editorials and social media outreach, she added.
Many of the conservative groups that have joined the “Trump Defense Team” effort have a history of using politically charged debates as fund-raising tools, and several of them are doing so now. Activists are invited to sign a petition to declare their “full support” for Mr. Trump and “reject Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats’ efforts to overturn the free and fair presidential election.” Signers are then prompted to donate to the group, “so we can continue to push back against the Deranged Democrats.”
Ms. Martin did not disclose how much Tea Party Patriots had raised so far, but said that the average donation is $49, and is used to ensure the group’s supporters receive the training and supplies they need to be active.
“It is an effort to be helpful,” Ms. Martin said. “It’s not self-serving as much as it is making sure we are able to help all our volunteers across the entire conservative movement.”
Other members of the group are fund-raising consultants, such American Target Advertising, run by the conservative fund-raiser Richard Viguerie, and the Richard Norman Company, whose conservative clients have included the Family Research Council, which has challenged abortion laws in the United States.
The Republican National Committee has its own effort to defend Mr. Trump that also heavily emphasizes fund-raising, which it is calling “Stop the Madness” and the “Official Impeachment Defense Task Force” and offering a “wallet-size card certifying your membership” in exchange for a donation.
“These Impeachment Hearings are a total SCAM!” the Republican National Committee said in a tweet this week. “The President is calling on YOU to crush our goal of $3 MILLION in 24 hours. ALL DONATIONS WILL BE DOUBLE-MATCHED!”
Democratic political groups, like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, are also raising money on impeachment, but the fund-raising pitches by Mr. Trump’s side have been more explicit and involved a broader array of groups.
Mr. Bossie recalled an adage by a conservative activist: “You can’t save the world if you can’t pay the rent. You have to raise the funds necessary to tell your story and send your message to the American people.” His group, Citizens United, does not currently have a fund-raising component of their anti-impeachment efforts. “There should be,” he said.
Mr. McIntosh said the Club for Growth was seeing “tremendous feedback from every level” of participant in its organization, but in particular, activists outside Washington.
“We’re asking them to make calls to the offices. It’s brought in a lot of new activists for the Club For Growth,” he said. “At the donor level, we’re seeing a response. ‘How can I help, where do you need funds to execute this program?’”
Mr. McIntosh said that he had heard initial concerns from “longtime, loyalist donors” who warned him not to forget that the group’s mission is to bolster congressional candidates focused on cutting taxes and limited government.
“But they get it,” he added. “If the president is in trouble, it’s hard to win those races.”
Eric Lipton contributed reporting.