America Rising

America Rising is a political action committee (PAC) that produces opposition research on Democratic Party members.[1] It is located in Alexandria, Virginia. It was founded in March 2013 by Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign manager, Matt Rhoades.[2] Political strategist Tim Miller left the Republican National Committee (RNC) to join the clearinghouse. As of January 2014, between the PAC and the LLC run by fellow opposition research veteran Joe Pounder, the organization employed 47 people, full or part-time. CNN reported that America Rising would be split into two entities: a super PAC that aimed to spread negative stories about congressional Democratic incumbents and candidates through digital channels and earned media, and an LLC that would house a video library to be shared with GOP candidates, the RNC and other right-leaning groups. To avoid making illegal in-kind corporate contributions, the LLC would likely need to charge candidates for access to the library.[3] Pounder and Miller estimated it would have a budget of between $10 and $15 million for the 2013-2014 election cycle.[4]

Raj Shah, appointed to be White House Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Communications for Research in the Trump Administration in 2017, was also a co-founder of the PAC. He had been deputy research director at the RNC in 2012 and, from there, ultimately became the head of opposition research at the committee for the 2016 campaign. After 2012, he focused specifically on developing deep anti-Hillary Clinton playbooks for America Rising and the RNC.[5]

2014 Iowa Senate campaign

America Rising released a split screen video of Democratic Senate candidate Bruce Braley being readied for a televised appearance alongside a similar video of former U.S. Senator John Edwards.[6] America Rising also released a video of Braley saying of Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, "you might have a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school, never practiced law, serving as the next chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee."[7]

References

  1. ↑ Moody, Chris (February 20, 2015). "Political dirt digger joins Jeb Bush PAC". CNN. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  2. ↑ Weigel, David, "The Republican PAC that’s filming every single thing that key Democratic candidates do or say", Slate Magazine, January 13, 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  3. ↑ Blumenthal, Paul, "America Rising GOP Research Super PAC Launches With Romney Campaign Manager At Helm", The Huffington Post, March 21, 2013. With link to Hamby, Peter, "Romney campaign chief to lead new GOP research group", CNN, March 21st, 2013. Retrieved October 11, 2013.
  4. ↑ Ward, Jon, "Destroying The Opposition Is A Business For the Right, A Cause For The Left", The Huffington Post, January 25, 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  5. ↑ Krasselt, Kaitlyn, "Norwalk’s Raj Shah forged his own political path", The Hour (Norwalk, CT), January 16, 2017. Retrieved 2013-03-31.
  6. ↑ Goddard, Taegan, "I feel pretty", Political Wire, August 21, 2014. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
  7. ↑ Sullivan, Sean. "Why Bruce Braley’s ‘farmer from Iowa’ remark hit a nerve back home". www.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
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