Using qualitative comparative analysis to mirror the decision-framework employed by the leaders of the Democratic and Republican congressional campaign committees, I demonstrate party leaders simultaneously consider multiple factors when they decide how to distribute their party’s limited resources to candidates. In contrast to studies, which characterize American party organizations as strategically pragmatic rather than ideologically motivated like parties in many other countries, I find the congressional candidate’s ideology is an increasingly important criterion for the receipt of party support as politics in the United States becomes more polarized.