A super PAC financed by top conservative megadonors is preparing to wage a vicious campaign against vulnerable Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., after helping to deliver the Republican nomination to state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.
The group, 35th PAC, raised more than $1.3 million, collecting $500,000 from businessman Richard Uihlein; $250,000 from Bernie Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot; $100,000 from attorney C. Boyden Gray, and an undisclosed sum from industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch. It expects to raise even more from this core group of contributors, while expanding its donor base as excitement builds about the race on the Right.
“From Day 1, our goal was simple: to ensure the Morrisey campaign had the necessary resources and support to effectively communicate his conservative message. We look forward to continuing this effort into the fall to defeat Joe Manchin,” Republican operative Phil Cox, who runs 35th PAC, said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner.
The organization focused on defeating Rep. Evan Jenkins in the primary, even as some Republicans worried coal baron Don Blankenship might sneak past both he and Morrisey. The attorney general, 50, ended up winning a crowded primary with 35 percent of the vote. Now, 35th PAC is readying a brutal advertising blitz on Manchin.
The 70-year-old former governor began his Senate tenure as among West Virginia’s most popular politicians. He easily won his first race in 2010, President Barack Obama’s first midterm, even as Republicans were swept into power on Capitol Hill by a Tea Party wave. But Manchin’s image has taken a tumble as West Virginia has grown more conservative, leaving the senator in trouble in a state President Trump won by 42 points less than two years ago.
The Morrisey super PAC, sure to be joined by other Republican groups, is looking to exploit this political weakness in what prognosticators are calling a tossup. Leading the charge is Cox, a former executive director of the Republican Governors Association with a reputation for hardball politics. The group’s pollster, credited for preventing a freakout during the primary’s Blankenship boomlet, is Bryan Sanders of IMGE. His wife is Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary.
Rounding out the 35th PAC team are executive director D.J. Eckert; fundraising consultant Cara Edmundowicz; and communications strategist Leonardo Alcivar. Republican groups, like Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., generally stayed out of the contested primary, although one super PAC was launched for the sole purpose of blocking Blankenship, as the party worried he would lose to Manchin.
That gave the Morrisey super PAC an edge in shaping the campaign, at least early on.
Of the approximately $1.3 million 35th PAC raised, less than 10 percent went to cover overhead costs. The rest was plowed into a statewide television ad buy (an investment of about $500,000) plus nearly 750,000 pieces of direct mail targeting a universe of 115,000 voters in 85,000 households. Digital spots also figured prominently in the group’s strategy.
