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Political leanings: Conservative
2022 total spending: $89.3 million
Club for Growth Action, the super PAC of the conservative Club for Growth, was launched in August 2010. On its website, the organization declares its mission is to “take on any Member of Congress on policy who fails to uphold basic economic conservative principles … regardless of party.”
The super PAC targets some Republican incumbents in primary elections in order to replace them with “free-market, limited government conservatives.” Club for Growth Action states on its website that it has helped to elect conservatives such as Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Tim Scott of South Carolina.
As of Feb. 29, the group had raised over $37 million that it can spend during the 2024 election cycle. Its independent expenditures — spending for or against named candidates, without coordination with candidates or parties — totaled almost $6 million, according to Federal Election Commission records.
So far, most of the group’s spending in GOP primaries has been on ads opposing candidates in U.S. Senate races, including Gov. Jim Justice in West Virginia and state Sen. Matt Dolan in Ohio. Dolan lost his primary race to businessman Bernie Moreno on March 19.
In addition, in July 2023, the super PAC contributed about $4.5 million to Win It Back PAC, a super PAC headed by Club for Growth President David McIntosh. Win It Back PAC spent almost $6.5 million last summer against former President Donald Trump, but it reportedly stopped funding ads attacking him after an internal survey found that the ads were ineffective with voters, often boosting support for Trump.
As for its donors, the majority of the Club for Growth Action’s money thus far in the 2024 cycle has come from two people: Jeff Yass and Richard Uihlein. Yass, co-founder of the financial firm Susquehanna International Group, has donated $16 million to the super PAC. Meanwhile, Uihlein, the CEO of Uline, a shipping, packaging and industrial supplies company, has donated about $8.8 million.
Other large donors include financier Thomas Klingenstein, who has contributed $2.5 million, and Virginia James, an investor and chair of the Club for Growth’s board of directors, who has given over $1 million.
In 2022, the super PAC spent about $89 million, including about $70 million in independent expenditures and $13.5 million in contributions to other committees. That total was higher than the $71 million it spent during the last presidential election cycle in 2020.
FactCheck.org Undergraduate Fellow Blossom Izevbigie contributed to this article.
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