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Rebuilding America Now
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| Rebuilding America Now | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Location: | Washington, D.C. |
| Type: | Super PAC |
| Top official: | Laurie Gay and Tom Barrack |
| Year founded: | 2016 |
| Website: | Official website |
Rebuilding America Now is a super PAC that was established on June 2, 2016, to support Donald Trump's (R) 2016 presidential campaign.
Background
As of June 2017, the website for Rebuilding America Now listed the following statement on the organization's purpose:[1]
| “ | Rebuilding America Now is a Super PAC supporting Donald Trump in the 2016 general election. We are dedicated to showing Americans the truth about Hillary Clinton and her real record.
Priorities USA Action, the Super PAC backing Hillary Clinton, will spend at least $90 million trying to cover up the truth about Hillary and to smear Donald Trump. Rebuilding America Now will counter their nationwide advertising offensive. With your help, we will continue to make these hard-hitting ads and show people the truth about Hillary. We will run a national campaign just like Priorities USA, but we will do it better.[2] |
” |
Work
| Super PACs |
|---|
 |
| Read more about super PACs and the super PACs covered on Ballotpedia. |
2018 elections
Supported candidates
In October 2017, The Daily Beast reported that Rebuilding America Now had not reported any independent expenditures in support of Trump's presidential administration. The site also reported that the super PAC had expressed early support for Omar Navarro (R), a challenger to Rep. Maxine Waters (R-Calif.) and potential Republican challengers to Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.)[3]
2016 elections
Monica Lewinsky ads
The super PAC began releasing ads in early June 2016. The first ad drew ties between Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's email investigation and Bill Clinton's (D) involvement with Monica Lewinsky during his presidency; the ad was entitled "Hillary Clinton: More of the Same." The committee began airing the ad nationally on June 5, 2016, and planned to target Virginia, Florida, Ohio, and Colorado.[4] According to the super PAC, their strategy was to target the same states as the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA Action.[4]
Pro-Trump ads on manufacturing
On July 18, 2016, Rebuilding America Now released an ad, entitled "America Soaring," which promoted Donald Trump and his support of domestic manufacturing and American labor.[5]
Anti-Clinton Foundation ads
Politico reported on August 8, 2016, that the group released an ad entitled "Dead Broke." The ad attacked The Clinton Foundation and the sources of its contributions, saying, "It didn’t last long. A foundation was created and money started to roll. Speeches, connections and donations. Misogynist regimes, Wall Street insiders, corrupt dictators. They all had one thing in common. Their check cleared."[6]
Leadership
The super PAC was founded in 2016 by Tom Barrack and Laurie Gay. Barrack, a Los Angeles-based real estate investor, oversaw Trump's initial fundraising efforts when Trump began his campaign in 2015.[7][8] Gay was a long-time associate of Paul Manafort, who served as Trump's campaign chairman and chief strategist until August 2016.[8]
In June 2016, multiple media outlets reported that former Chris Christie (R) 2016 presidential campaign manager, Ken McKay, had been named as a key operative for the super PAC. McKay had been a senior advisor to Trump's campaign prior to his involvement with Rebuilding America Now.[8][4][9] McKay left the organization in July 2017 to begin as vice president for state government affairs at PhRMA, a pharmaceutical industry trade group.[10]
GOP strategist Alex Castellanos was also a strategist for the group in 2016.[4]
Finances
2016
According to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission, Rebuilding America Now reported $25,101,066 in total receipts and $28,444,721 in total disbursements during calendar year 2016.[11]
Donors of over $1 million
- Linda McMahon, $6,000,000[12]
- Bernard Marcus, $5,000,000[12]
- Geoffrey Palmer, $3,000,000[13]
- Ronald Cameron, $2,000,000[12]
- Peter Zieve, $1,000,000[12]
- Walter Buckley Jr., $1,000,000[12]
Legal status
Rebuilding America Now is a super PAC. A super PAC is a political committee that can solicit and spend unlimited sums of money. A super PAC cannot contribute directly to a politician or political party, but it can spend independently to campaign for or against political figures. These committees are also called independent expenditure-only committees. A super PAC is not legally considered a political action committee (PAC) and as such is regulated under separate rules.[14][15]
Noteworthy events
Trump endorsement
On July 20, 2016, in a series of meetings and presentations, the super PAC and members of Trump's campaign team implied that Trump encouraged donations to Rebuilding America Now. During a presentation, the super PAC presented a slide featuring a picture of Trump running mate Mike Pence (R). The slide's statement, which was attributed to Pence, read, "Supporting Rebuilding America Now is one of the best ways to stop Hillary Clinton and help elect Donald Trump our next president!" A member of the Trump campaign, Marty Obst, attended the gathering, according to Politico. Politico also noted that Trump campaign chairman "Paul Manafort [was] called into the meeting to discuss the campaign and make clear that the PAC was the only one he is addressing." The meeting was attended by several donors, including fast food CEO Andy Puzder, construction billionaire John Rakolta, and representatives for New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, Texas oil CEO Harold Hamm, and Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus.[16]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Rebuilding America Now'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Rebuilding America Now, "About our organization," accessed June 29, 2017
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ The Daily Beast, "Pro-Trump Super PAC Paying Executives a Fortune for Long Shot Challenges to Maxine Waters & Debbie Wasserman Schultz," October 16, 2017
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 ABC News, "New Pro-Donald Trump SuperPAC Out With Attack Ad Hitting Hillary Clinton," June 5, 2016
- ↑ The Washington Post, "Rebuilding America Now: 'America Soaring' | Campaign 2016," July 18, 2016
- ↑ Politico, "Playbook," August 8, 2016
- ↑ Fortune, "This Close Trump Buddy Just Launched a New Super PAC," June 3, 2016
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedcnn - ↑ USA Today, "Donald Trump ally secures $32 million for new super PAC," June 2, 2016
- ↑ American Pharmaceutical Review, "PhRMA Announces Two New VPs," July 11, 2017
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Rebuilding America Now Year-End Report, 2016," January 31, 2017
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Federal Election Commission, "Rebuilding America Now October Quarterly Report, 2016," October 15, 2016
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Rebuilding America Now Post-General Election Report, 2016," December 8, 2016
- ↑ The Atlantic, "The New York Times' Disingenuous Campaign Against Citizens United," February 24, 2012
- ↑ The New York Times, "Who's Financing the 'Super PACs?" May 7, 2012
- ↑ Politico, "Trump blesses major super PAC effort," July 20, 2016
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