President Trump and his allies in Congress are getting reinforcements for 2018 from two political groups backed by a pair of prominent Republican mega-donor families.
45Committee, a political nonprofit, and Future45, its affiliated super PAC, spent heavily to support Trump in 2016. Sheldon Adelson and the Ricketts family financed the organizations, both of which are now turning their attention to the midterm elections and the president’s legislative agenda.
45Committee has invested $4 million this year alone to generate support for Trump’s Cabinet nominees, a senior official with the political nonprofit said Tuesday.
“45Committee is more than just ads. It’s lots of grassroots work, digital, even newspaper ads,” the senior official added, confirming the group’s plans, and those of its affiliated super PAC, to the Washington Examiner. The official declined to reveal how much the groups plan to spend over the next two years, referring only to the “tens of millions” invested in 2015 and 2016.
To help Republicans pick up seats in 2018, and accomplish Trump’s priorities on Capitol Hill, the organizations have tapped a collection of former senior advisors to the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the NRSC, formerly the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Among them is Rob Collins, executive director of the NRSC in the 2014 election cycle. Over the past 10 days, Collins lobbied Republican senators to support Betsy DeVos, Trump’s nominee for education secretary. She was confirmed narrowly after Vice President Mike Pence cast the tiebreaking vote.
Also hired: Rob Simms, NRCC executive director in 2016; his business partner Mike Shields, the NRCC political director in 2012 and RNC chief of staff in 2014; and Cara Mason, finance director at the RNC in 2016.
Mason was brought on to help the 45Committee and Future45 diversify their base of financial support. The groups have ambitious plans and an extensive strategy in mind for the next two years.
To enhance its ability to develop messaging that compliments Trump, the groups signed Larry Weitzner of Jamestown Associates, the Republican ad man who produced most of the television spots for Trump’s presidential campaign. He joins Larry McCarthy, the GOP media consultant behind the advertising run by the political nonprofit and super PAC during the 2016 cycle.
Weitzner crafted 45Committee’s latest television ad, titled “CABINET,” which is running on national cable television.
45Committee and its sister organization view their activity as complimentary to the GOP party committees and the super PACs and nonprofits that have been officially sanctioned by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Trump.
Of those, the groups affiliated with Ryan and McConnell are up and running and have a track record. Trump’s personal outside group, a political nonprofit called “America First Policies,” is new; its plans are still vague beyond its goal of building public support for the president’s agenda.
A cadre of political hands loyal to Trump and Pence are running America First Policies. The group has not responded to a request for comment about its strategy and planned activities.
For now, that leaves 45Committee and Future45 as the outside groups that are operational and most focused on helping Trump, although they also plan to bolster congressional Republicans.
The groups launched in 2015, with an eye toward helping the eventual Republican presidential nominee. They spent 2015 pushing Republican-friendly issues. In 2016, they eventually became the most financially prolific among the outside groups that formed to help Trump.
