House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told their colleagues on Wednesday morning that they are transferring, respectively, $2.5 million and $2 million to the National Republican Congressional Committee, a promising sign for the House GOP’s fundraising prospects as the party braces for yet another competitive election cycle in 2024.

The cash transfers follow a $1.4 million cash haul Johnson raked in on Monday evening at his first major fundraiser as speaker of the House, hosted by Representative Vern Buchanan (R., Fla.) at his mansion in Longboat Key. “It was crazy how many people were there,” one event attendee tells National Review of the roughly 200-person crowd. “I don’t know if they could’ve fit anyone else on his back patio, to be honest.”

Recall that many members are still reeling from last month’s intraparty chaos, when eight House Republicans joined a united Democratic caucus in ousting former speaker Kevin McCarthy from his post.

Johnson seemed to tacitly acknowledge these tensions at Monday evening’s event. According to one event attendee, he told the crowd that House Republicans can fight all day about policy but should dial back the rhetoric because the American people want “civility” in both parties. “Johnson said, ‘I don’t agree with Pelosi on anything policy-wise, but I’m going to be respectful if she wants to meet with me,’” this person recalls Johnson telling the crowd.

Johnson’s political team did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his remarks.

House Republicans need all the campaign cash they can scrounge up ahead of 2024 to protect their razor-thin majority. The NRCC raised just $5 million in October, according to FEC filings, the same month House Republicans were without a speaker for three whole weeks. And as Politico reports, that October 2023 campaign haul is roughly half of what the House GOP’s campaign arm raised in the same off-year periods in 2019 and 2021, though the week after Johnson’s election the NRCC logged its best online-fundraising week of the cycle.

Monday’s fundraiser is welcome news to swing-district Republicans who are hoping Johnson will be able to turn on the money spigot ahead of a presidential-election cycle. As National Review reported back in October, some swing-district McCarthy allies had expressed concerns early on that Johnson would not be able to match his predecessor’s fundraising prowess.

“There is a very large disconnect between our current new speaker and Kevin McCarthy in terms of fundraising and winning the majority,” Representative John Duarte (R., Calif.) told NR the evening before Johnson was elected to his post. “Maybe the speaker moniker alone will carry him to riches and all kinds of fundraising.”