Chicago Cubs Co-owner Ricketts Expected to Head GOP Fundraising

WASHINGTON — Todd Ricketts, a co-owner of the Chicago Cubs, is expected to be named the new finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, replacing the casino magnate Steve Wynn, who was pushed out amid allegations of serious sexual abuse, three Republican officials said Tuesday.

Spokesmen for Ricketts and the RNC did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday afternoon.

But an official in communication with the RNC said that Ricketts was in the final stages of talks about accepting the position.

Ricketts has become an ally of President Donald Trump, despite a rocky start to their relationship.

The Ricketts family, which owes its fortune to the founding of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade by the family patriarch Joe Ricketts, donated $5.5 million to a super PAC seeking to block Trump from winning the Republican presidential nomination. That prompted Trump to lash out at the family on Twitter, writing that they “better be careful, they have a lot to hide!”

But, after Trump won the nomination, the Ricketts family donated or raised many times more than that for a pair of groups that supported Trump’s candidacy.

Trump had nominated Todd Ricketts to be a deputy secretary of commerce last year, but Ricketts withdrew his nomination, citing potential conflicts of interests between the job and his family’s business interests.

The RNC could formally consider Ricketts’ nomination at its annual winter meeting, which is being held this week at the Trump International Hotel here.

Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are expected to speak at the meeting.