One important lesson from the 2016 election was to follow the money, especially to the donors and vendors supporting Trump and other right-wing candidates. A large part of the network supporting Trump during the campaign will continue to support him if he is elected in the fall.
Last month I reported on how the largest Trump PACs are spending their money and provided an analysis of the people and vendors paid $1 million or more. Two of the largest vendors that have been paid over $17 million each are Red Curve Solutions run by PAC treasurer Bradley Crate and Campaign Inbox which was co-founded by an ex-Cambridge Analytica executive.
Since my last story a new pro-Trump super PAC – America PAC – was launched in May and may become one of the most sizable and influential PACs in the campaign with a massive amount of funding from Elon Musk.
Following is an overview of Elon Musk and America PAC with new details on the full list of initial donors prior to Musk and a close look at the vendors paid in June – companies that may get paid significantly more if Elon Musk donates tens or hundreds of millions in the coming months.
The growing alliance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk
The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the growing alliance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who endorsed Trump on Twitter (aka X). Trump is considering an advisory role for Elon Musk if he wins in November.
The role hasn’t been fully hammered out and might not happen, people familiar with the talks said, but the two men discussed ways to give Musk formal input and influence over policies related to border security and the economy, both issues on which Musk has grown more vocal.
Musk and investor Nelson Peltz met with Trump and spoke to him about their plan to invest in a data-driven project to prevent voter fraud. Peltz is a billionaire investor and Board Chairman of Wendy’s and Musk has been backing Peltz to become a board director at Disney.
Musk, along with the billionaire investor Nelson Peltz, has also briefed Trump on a plan they have developed to invest in a data-driven project to prevent voter fraud, according to some of the people. Peltz and Musk also told Trump of an influence campaign in elite circles that is already under way, in which Musk and his political allies host gatherings of powerful business leaders across the country to try to convince them not to support President Biden’s re-election campaign.
It is notable that Musk and Peltz discussed a plan to invest in a data-driven project to prevent voter fraud shortly before the news broke about a huge commitment by Musk to support a PAC focused on increasing voter turnout.
Elon Musk plans to commit $45 million per month to America PAC to support Trump
In June the New York Times reported on a new pro-Trump super PAC called America PAC that is spending millions of dollars to encourage Republican-leaning voters to vote early or by absentee ballot.
Last week Bloomberg reported that Elon Musk had made a sizable donation to America PAC. And this week the Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk plans to commit a whopping $45 million per month to America PAC to support Trump’s campaign.
America PAC was formed in May by Chris Gober, a prominent Republican campaign-finance lawyer based in Texas. The committee is an independent expenditure-only political committee Super PAC.
Chris Gober runs The Gober Group, Rightside Compliance and Vantage Legal. He was counsel for former Republican representative Jody Hice of Georgia who had fought against a subpoena from the Fulton County DA Fani Willis to testify in the Trump election probe. The Gober Group has worked for Ken Paxton and according to his website bio Gober represents dozens of politicians across the U.S.
America PAC received $8.75 million from 14 donors including some with ties to Palantir, Sequoia, PayPal, Tesla and Musk
America PACs July 15 Report of Receipts and Disbursements showing activity for June 2024 included total receipts of $8,750,000, listed below.
- $1 million – James Liautaud, retired restaurateur and founder of Jimmy John’s sandwich chain
- $1 million – Lonsdale Enterprises, firm of Joe Lonsdale, tech entrepreneur and Palantir co-founder
- $1 million – Joe Craft, CEO of coal producer Alliance Resource Partners
- $1 million (4 donations of $250,000 each) – Kenneth Howery, investor, co-founder PayPal and Founders Fund.
- $1 million – Antonio Gracias, Valor Equity Partners and director of Tesla 2007-2021
- $1 million – Douglas Leone, Sequoia Capital
- $500,000 – Shaun Maguire, Sequoia Capital
- $500,000 – Watershed Capital LLC
- $500,000 – Troy Link, WCM Investments, LLC
- $500,000 – John Hering, Lookout founder
- $200,000 – Michael Thompson, self-employed investor
- $250,000 – Cameron Winklevoss, Winkelvoss Capital Management
- $250,000 – Tyler Winklevoss, Winkelvoss Capital Management
- $50,000 – Daniel Berdakin, retired
While Bloomberg had reported that Elon Musk has already made a donation, it was not included in the July 15 report for June receipts displayed above.
According to the Washington Post several of the America PAC donors above attended a Trump fundraiser at the California home of David Sacks, who recently spoke at the Republican National Convention to less-than-rave reviews.
America PAC spent over $7.8 million in June
America PACs July 15 Report of Receipts and Disbursements showing activity for June 2024 included total disbursements of $7,782,240.
The New York Times reported that America PAC had paid around $6 million to a canvassing field operations company called In Field Strategies and paid around $650,000 to a digital marketing firm Raconteur Media.
About $6 million for “canvassing/field operations” to In Field Strategies, a large Republican grass-roots operation that has been paid by the Republican National Committee and, more recently, the presidential campaigns of two of Mr. Trump’s rivals in the G.O.P. primary race, former Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Nikki Haley of South Carolina
And about $650,000 to Raconteur Media, a digital marketing firm that has primarily worked for conservative clients in Texas and has been paid for printing and text messaging services.
The FEC filing also shows an itemized disbursement of $33,042 to Maven Advocacy Partners LLC in Austin, Texas, the address for Chris Gober who set up and is the treasurer for America PAC.
The last two sections below focus on In Field Strategies and Raconteur Media, the main companies paid by America PAC in June 2024, to provide context on the firms supporting the PAC’s voter engagement efforts, and to highlight some prior notable or questionable activities that were reported on over past years.
America PAC vendor Raconteur Media
The America PAC FEC filing shows that independent expenditure payments of approximately $650,000 were made to Raconteur Media in Texas for various items including: Printing, Text Service, Digital Media and Message Phone Calls.
Texas-based Raconteur Media was founded by Ryan Gravatt in 2004.
Early in his career Ryan Gravatt worked at political consulting firm The Patriot Group, founded by Texas oil billionaire Tim Dunn. I wrote this story about Tim Dunn and his recent work with Tump’s former digital head Brad Parscale.
Ryan Gravatt worked at The Patriot Group with Denis Calabrese and in 2007 Gravatt founded the Big Red Tent Texas PAC.
In 2020 the Laura and John Arnold Foundation (LJAF) sued Denis Calabrese for allegedly stealing millions of dollars from the foundation. LJAF also sued several defendants including Raconteur Media and Ryan Gravatt. It appears that the case was dismissed last year.
Separate from the lawsuit, in 2019 Denis Calabrese pleaded guilty to tax evasion for filing a false tax return in 2011 that substantially understated his income.
There is no indication that Ryan Gravatt and Raconteur Media continued to work with Denis Calabrese in recent years.
America PAC vendor In Field Strategies
The America PAC FEC filing shows that independent expenditure payments of approximately $6 million were made to In Field Strategies Inc. in California for “Canvassing/Field Operations”
According to their website, In Field Strategies is a grassroots consulting firm that was co-founded by Tommy Knepper and Brandon Vidrine in 2017. Tommy Knepper had been the RNC Pennsylvania State Director in Trump’s 2016 campaign and prior to that was the CEO of Right Group Consulting. Brandon Vidrine was Pennsylvania Senior Advisor at the RNC and prior to that was VP of Business Development at data analytics firm Causeway Solutions.
In Field Strategies was mentioned in a 2023 NBC News report on millions of dollars spent by Republicans on deeply flawed operations to turnout the vote.
The large-scale voter contact effort that conservatives have put at the center of their political operations in recent years is plagued with issues, according to more than a dozen people who’ve worked in GOP-aligned field operations and internal data obtained by NBC News. Those issues include fraudulent and untrustworthy data entries, akin to what occurred in Nevada, as well as allegations of lax hiring practices and a lack of accountability.
The story described an email sent by a canvasser to In Field Strategies leadership with allegations about improper vetting and incomplete background checks on the people going out into the field. The story includes the response from In Field Strategies co-founder Tommy Knepper.
“Several former employees were fired after their background checks returned showing that they were violent felons,” the person continued in the email. “This company put not only the other employees at risk, but they also put the voters at risk as well.”
Responding to questions from NBC News about the canvassers’ allegations, Tommy Knepper, the president and co-founder, said in a statement that In Field Strategies “has always and will always be committed to the highest level of professionalism in our hiring and training process.”
A 2022 story by the Detroit Free Press described how a former Detroit police chief was suing several defendants who collected signatures for his nominating petition after he and other candidates for government were disqualified over thousands of forged signatures. In Field Strategies was a named defendant and they subcontracted the work to another firm.
In Field Strategies did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. But the company’s CEO, Tommy Knepper, told the Free Press earlier that it was another company, hired as a subcontractor by In Field, that provided signatures the Craig campaign was concerned about.
Around a decade ago in 2014 In Field Strategies co-founder Tommy Knepper was working as a campaign manager for a Republican congressman in San Diego and apologized for making offensive racists comments.
A set of emails from April 19 that Bosnich sent to the Washington Examiner showed DeMaio campaign manager Knepper advising staff on how to spot “trackers” — staffers who show up at the opponent’s events and report back on them. Knepper wrote that “red flags” included people who are young and at a Saturday morning event, and people who are black. DeMaio responded in an email: “Drop black from the criteria.” The DeMaio campaign didn’t deny the emails were sent. Knepper later apologized for them in a statement sent to Talking Points Memo.
There is no indication of any illegal activity or wrongdoing by In Field Strategies or Raconteur Media. Given the focus of America PAC on voter engagement it is important to understand the background of the vendors the PAC is using and the practices used to support Trump in the months ahead.
If Elon Musk follows through to contribute $45 million per month to America PAC it will dwarf other Trump donors and have a huge impact on the 2024 election. It is essential to provide transparency into the people funding and supporting Trump’s campaign and the vendors who are paid. The money flowing into and out of America PAC and others should be monitored closely.
I will continue to follow the money and the network of people supporting Trump. Subscribe below for emails when new pieces are published. Read more about other Trump supporting PACs and the largest vendors paid here:
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