Matea Gold for WaPo:

Thirteen years after billionaire industrialist Charles Koch gathered a small group of his fellow libertarian donors in a Chicago hotel to discuss how to promote their economic theories, the network he launched is one of the country’s most potent political forces, with 1,600 staffers across 38 states.

But Koch’s refusal to harness his singular operation in support of the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, has put him at odds with some of his wealthiest peers — and forced the network to defend its relevance at a time of its greatest reach….

Instead, the Koch operation scaled back its plans. After originally aiming to spend $889 million in the 2016 cycle, the network is now on track to invest $750 million, with roughly a third — $250 million — financing the policy and political campaigns of groups such as Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Partners Action Fund, Concerned Veterans for America, the Libre Initiative and Generation Opportunity, officials said.

Koch spent the weekend stressing that politics is just a piece of what the network finances in its efforts to spread free-market principles.

“I recognize reluctantly that politics needs to be a piece of this strategy, but we’ve got to keep in mind, just one piece,” he told donors Saturday night as they sipped wine and cocktails in a ballroom. “If we just focus on politics, we’re going to continue to lose, we’re going to continue to deteriorate,” drawing scattered applause from the audience.

On Sunday, Koch laid out the immediate political priorities: electing like-minded candidates to Congress and cultivating conservative leaders at the state level. So far, the network is active in six competitive Senate races, on its way to spend $42 million on paid ads in states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida.