Chris Winkelman, the top staffer at the House Republican campaign arm, will be the new president of the Congressional Leadership Fund.
Winkelman will replace Dan Conston, who has led the super PAC for six years and announced Monday he will be stepping down. CLF, the largest House GOP super PAC, is endorsed by Speaker Mike Johnson.
As its leader, Winkelman will court major party donors and direct hundreds of millions of dollars in ad spending to help Republicans grow their narrow majority. He spent three cycles as general counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee before taking over as its executive director in 2023.
His tenure at the NRCC has given him strong relationships with members and the chairman, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.). And he is known to be close with Johnson, who assumed the speakership in late 2023.
“Chris Winkelman helped lead the fight to defend Republicans’ House majority at the NRCC and will be a strong force leading the Congressional Leadership Fund to build on those efforts in the next election cycle,” Johnson said in a statement.
Winkelman is an expert on campaign and finance law, including the intersection of party committees, super PACs, nonprofits and candidates’ campaigns.
He was heavily involved in courting donors at the NRCC, but leading the top super PAC will require a different kind of fundraising. CLF and its sister nonprofit, American Action Network, can accept much larger checks from donors. Conston had close ties to the massive GOP donor network, which he developed over his term.
“Chris will be a fantastic leader who will take what’s been built and grow CLF to even greater levels,” Conston said, praising his “sharp political acumen and legal mind.”
Winkelman is known for keeping a lower media profile and working quietly behind the scenes. Republicans maintained their House majority this year despite having a tough map, forced to defend more than a dozen incumbents in districts that Joe Biden won.
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