National Journal: Hotline: PAC Goals

PAC GOALS. “America Rising PAC, which at the time of its founding five years ago focused exclusively on researching, tracking and deploying rapid-response against Hillary Clinton, is well into a beneath-the-radar effort to define—and ultimately derail—the Democrats preparing to take on President Donald Trump in 2020.

“The oppo-research carpet-bombing has commenced against Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, among others: America Rising was responsible for spotting and blasting out a video of Warren telling an audience she wants to ‘cut open’ the bodies of Republicans to see if they have hearts, generating a spate of 2017 stories.

“With a potentially colossal field of Democratic presidential contenders and no one close to being a front-runner, the mission figures to be an expensive endeavor. So donors across the country are quietly getting the hard sell as the group moves toward its goal of raising $8 million for the 2020 cycle — roughly three times as much as it took in during the successful three-year quest to help defeat Clinton.”

“The spoiler effort, now underway in tandem with the pro-Trump America First super PAC— which helps promote the president’s agenda—is geared toward more than muddying-up prospective Trump opponents. The groups are also pursuing a strategy intended to pit Democrats against each other in a battle of progressive bona fides that the PAC is gleefully branding as the “#RaceToTheLeft.” (Politico)

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This post is excerpted from National Journal. Click here to read the full article.