| Formation | January 6, 2015 |
|---|---|
| Type | Super PAC |
| Legal status | Inactive |
| Purpose | Elect Jeb Bush as President |
| Leader |
|
Budget | $100 million (August 2015) |
| ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
  | ||
Right to Rise is a political action committee (PAC) created to support Jeb Bush in the 2016 presidential election. A Super PAC, Right to Rise is permitted to raise and spend unlimited amounts of corporate, union, and individual campaign contributions under the terms of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. [1]
The creation of the Super PAC was announced on January 6, 2015, by Bush. [2] According to Bush, the name was inspired by Congressman Paul Ryan and 1996 Republican vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp. [2] Bush's campaign strategy would "commence with six months of fundraising for the Right to Rise super PAC and enough muscle to push aside Mitt Romney". [3] Bush personally raised money for the Super PAC prior to the official announcement of his candidacy. [1]
Bush officially announced his candidacy in June 2015, at which point Mike Murphy took over leadership of Right to Rise. [4] The Bush campaign planned to leave Right to Rise in charge of television and digital advertising efforts, while the Bush campaign would take charge of voter outreach. [1]
Through July 2015, Bush's campaign and Super PAC had raised over $114 million, which gave "Bush a sizable financial advantage over more than a dozen GOP rivals and over Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton". Bush rewarded top donors by inviting them to a donor retreat in Kennebunkport, hosted at his parents' estate in Walker's Point. [5] By August 2015, Right to Rise had raised over $100 million. [6]
In spring of 2015, donors were concerned "that focusing so much on filling the super PAC's coffers might leave the campaign cash-poor"; yet the Bush campaign initially built "out a massive campaign with ballot-access teams working every state and senior staffers earning more than $200,000 annual salaries" and "hired scores of policy aides". Once Danny Diaz became the Bush campaign manager in June 2015, "he went on a cost-cutting spree — implementing painful across-the-board cuts that affected staffers at nearly every corner of the campaign". [3]
The "tens of millions of dollars in ad buys" from Right to Rise failed to raise Bush's standing in polls, while Trump managed to generate tremendous free media exposure. [7] Eleven of 16 major donors were also unhappy with Right to Rise's spending on the Bush campaign, including "stays at boutique hotels featuring rooftop pools, private soirees at members-only, jacket-and-tie clubs and fundraisers at the Four Seasons, the St. Regis and the Mandarin Oriental", private planes, and "big spending on staff". By contrast rival Ted Cruz resorted to cheaper options like Holiday Inn and budget airlines. [8]
In the summer of 2015, Mike Murphy explained his strategy: "If other campaigns wish that we're going to uncork money on Donald Trump, they'll be disappointed. ... Trump is, frankly, other people's problem". [9] Later in 2015, Murphy further explained that the PAC's strategy was based on the assumption that Trump's campaign would inevitably fail, and so the PAC would instead concentrate on defeating other GOP candidates, "candidates in our lane that we can overcome." [10] However, Murphy's decision to target GOP establishment candidates Marco Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich, instead of Donald Trump, created dissatisfaction among some major donors to the PAC. Kasich's strategist was quoted as saying "Their super PAC ran a tough campaign, they ran a lot of negative ads. We had to disavow some of the things that our super PAC ran, so I'm sure that Jeb Bush -- I wouldn't speak for him, clearly -- might do things differently if he was in control of his super PAC. I have no idea." In addition, the Super PAC's "decision to emphasize Bush's government experience in a year when voters clearly were looking for outsider cred and a candidate who could channel anger at the establishment" was seen as a wrong strategy. [7]
Stephen F. Hayes of The Weekly Standard offered this assessment of Right to Rise in January 2016: [11]
Trump has had few better allies than Right to Rise, the super PAC supporting Bush's candidacy. There will be plenty of blame to go around if Trump ends up as the Republican nominee, but Right to Rise will have earned a prominent chapter in those histories. ... Right to Rise, like an all-pro right guard, helped clear a path for Trump by blocking several of his would-be tacklers, in particular Marco Rubio. This was no accident. It was the plan.
Bush ultimately suspended his run on February 20, 2016, shortly after the South Carolina primary. [12] [13]
This was Murphy's second time that he had managed an expensive campaign loss. Murphy's first failure was Meg Whitman's $177 million campaign where she was defeated in the 2010 California gubernatorial election by Democrat Jerry Brown who spent $36 million. [7]
The following contributors donated over $1 million to Right to Rise.
An independent expenditure, in elections in the United States, is a political campaign communication that expressly advocates for the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate that is not made in cooperation, consultation or concert with; or at the request or suggestion of a candidate, candidate's authorized committee, or political party. If a candidates agent, authorized committee, party, or an "agent" for one of these groups becomes "materially involved", the expenditure is not independent.
Michael Ellis Murphy is a Republican political consultant, entertainment industry writer, and producer. He advised Republicans including John McCain, Jeb Bush, David Dreier, John Engler, Tommy Thompson, Spencer Abraham, Christie Whitman, Lamar Alexander, Meg Whitman, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Until January 2006, he was an adviser to Republican Mitt Romney. Murphy resigned his position with Romney when his former client John McCain made it clear he would also pursue the Republicans presidential nomination in 2008; Murphy decided to be neutral in the contest between them. Murphy is a vocal Republican critic of President Donald Trump. He endorsed Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
This article contains the list of candidates associated with the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries for the 2016 United States presidential election.
Presidential primaries and caucuses of the Republican Party took place within all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories between February 1 and June 7, 2016. These elections selected the 2,472 delegates that were sent to the Republican National Convention. Businessman and reality television star Donald Trump won the Republican nomination for president of the United States.
The following is a timeline of major events leading up to, during, and after the 2016 United States presidential election. The election was the 58th quadrennial United States presidential election, held on November 8, 2016. The presidential primaries and caucuses were held between February 1 and June 14, 2016, staggered among the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories. The U.S. Congress certified the electoral result on January 6, 2017, and the new president and vice president were inaugurated on January 20, 2017.
The 2016 United States Senate election in Florida was held November 8, 2016 to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Florida, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. The primary elections for both the Republicans and Democrats took place on August 30, 2016.
Twelve presidential debates and nine forums were held between the candidates for the Republican Party's nomination for president in the 2016 United States presidential election, starting on August 6, 2015.
The 2016 presidential campaign of Jeb Bush, the 43rd Governor of Florida, was formally launched on June 15, 2015, coming six months after announcing the formal exploration of a candidacy for the 2016 Republican nomination for the President of the United States on December 16, 2014, and the formation of the Right to Rise PAC. On February 20, 2016, Bush announced his intention to drop out of the presidential race following the South Carolina primary. Had Bush been elected, he would have been the first president from Florida and the first sibling of a U.S. president to win the presidency himself.
This is a list of notable political endorsements for declared candidates for the Republican primaries for the 2016 United States presidential election. Endorsements are part of the "invisible primary" process, which occurs not only long before the general election, but also largely occurs before even the caucuses and primaries have begun.
The 2016 presidential campaign of Ted Cruz, the junior United States senator from Texas, was announced on March 23, 2015. He was a candidate for the Republican Party's 2016 presidential nomination and won the second-most state contests and delegates. Cruz themed his campaign around being an outsider and a strict conservative. In the crowded early field, he chose not to directly confront the leading candidate, Donald Trump, who was also viewed as an outsider candidate. His cordial and sympathetic tone towards Trump contrasted with the more critical approach of rivals such as Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul. Had Cruz been elected, he would have been the first Cuban American U.S. president.
The 2016 presidential campaign of Marco Rubio, who is currently the senior United States senator from Florida, was formally announced on April 13, 2015, at an event at the Freedom Tower in Downtown Miami. Early polling showed Rubio, who was considered a potential candidate for Vice President by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012, as a frontrunner candidate for the Republican nomination for president of the United States in 2016 since at least the end of the 2012 election. Rubio was the second Cuban American to run for president of the United States, with Republican Ted Cruz announcing his campaign three weeks earlier. He suspended his campaign on March 15, 2016, after finishing second in Florida's primary.
Lindsey Graham, the senior United States senator from South Carolina and former U.S. Representative for South Carolina's 3rd congressional district, announced his bid for the Republican nomination for president on June 1, 2015, at an event in his hometown of Central, South Carolina. Although he was praised for solid, often humorous debate performances, the campaign never gained any traction, and was suspended on December 21, 2015.
The 2016 presidential campaign of John Kasich, the 69th governor of Ohio, was announced on July 21, 2015. He was a candidate for the 2016 Republican Party presidential nomination. He earned 154 delegates and won only one contest, his home state, Ohio. Kasich suspended his campaign on May 4, 2016, one day after becoming the last major challenger to Donald Trump for the nomination. Kasich vied to become the first Pennsylvania native to hold the office since James Buchanan in 1856, as well as the first from the city of Pittsburgh to do so.
Fundraising plays a central role in many presidential campaigns, and is a key factor in determining the viability of candidates. Money raised is applied for the salaries of non-volunteers in the campaign, transportation, campaign materials, media advertisements and other contingencies. Under United States law, officially declared candidates are required to file campaign finance details with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) at the end of every calendar month or quarter. Summaries of these reports are made available to the public shortly thereafter, revealing the relative financial situations of all the campaigns.
Alfred Hoffman Jr. is an American businessman and politician. He is a real estate developer and a former Ambassador to Portugal.
The 2016 New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, which took place on February 9, was the second major vote of the cycle. Donald Trump was declared the winner with 35.3% of the popular vote and picked up 11 delegates, while John Kasich emerged from a pack of candidates between 10-20% to capture second place with 15.8% of the vote and picked up four delegates.
The 2016 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses took place on February 1 in the U.S. state of Iowa, traditionally marking the Republican Party's first nominating contest in their series of presidential primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The 2016 South Carolina Republican presidential primary took place on February 20 in the U.S. state of South Carolina, marking the Republican Party's third nominating contest in their series of presidential primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The Never Trump movement, also called the #nevertrump, Stop Trump, anti-Trump, or Dump Trump movement, is an ongoing moderate conservative movement that opposes Trumpism and 45th U.S. president Donald Trump. It began as an effort on the part of a group of Republicans and other prominent conservatives to prevent Republican front-runner Donald Trump from obtaining the Republican Party presidential nomination.
Tim Miller is an American political consultant and writer. He was a communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, and subsequently became an outspoken critic of former U.S. president Donald Trump.
Right to Rise also angered some of its own donors by targeting Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who could well become the Republican Party's nominee.
