by Robert Schmad
About a third of the money spent this election cycle by the Lincoln Project, a PAC founded by former Republican political consultants to stop former President Donald Trump, went to companies controlled by his high-ranking operatives, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) data.
The Lincoln Project has spent $12.8 million since January 2023, with just over $4 million going to companies owned by members of the project’s leadership, according to the Daily Caller News review With FEC Records. Fox Business in 2021 reported more than half of the $90 million the Lincoln Project raised for the 2020 election was paid to companies owned by frontrunners.
Of the Lincoln Project’s total spending this election cycle, about 31 percent went to various types of consulting, about 16 percent to salaries or wages, and about 10 percent to produce ads that are not intended to oppose or support a specific candidate, according to FEC records. The organization also spent more than half a million dollars on “podcast services” and nearly $1 million on legal fees.
“Their whole scam is pissing off Donald Trump, and that’s what they’re selling,” Capital Research Center Senior Investigative Researcher Ken Braun told DCNF. “They’ve really come up with a unique way to use negative campaigning against their own donors, and that’s a much easier thing to raise money for.” [off of] than actually being effective. You can show your donors, “Look, we said this nasty thing about Donald Trump, you don’t like it? Here, give us more money!” … I have to give them credit, in a very cynical way, for coming up with a really effective way to raise money without actually being effective.”
Lever Communications, formerly known as Joe Trippi & Associates, has earned nearly $1 million from the Lincoln Project this election cycle for consulting and digital advertising, according to campaign finance documents. Trippy is a Democratic strategist and senior advisor at the Lincoln Project.
Meanwhile, Lincoln Project board member and co-founder Rick Wilson’s company, Intrepid Media, received $664,000 from the PAC, mostly for “strategic consulting,” according to disclosures. Wilson’s son (pictured above), Andrew, also received a gigantic check courtesy of Lincoln Project donors, and the PAC paid him $105,750 for “corporate campaign management.”
The Lincoln Project has been criticized for its self-aggrandizement since it began operating as a PAC in 2019. George Conway, one of the Lincoln Project’s co-founders who left the organization in 2020, even said in March 2021 that the organization “should shut down if they don’t fully disclose their finances.” Meanwhile, New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in 2020 that the group had entered “fraud territory” due to its high fundraising totals and impoverished performance, according to Business Insider.
Among the failed 2020 campaigns were a $2.7 million effort to unseat Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines, in which he won by 10 points, and a $1.7 million spending spree to replace Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, in which she won by 9 points.
The Lincoln Project recently spent $300,000 to support Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s 2021 bid for governor of Virginia, which resulted in a surprise victory for Republican Glenn Youngkin, who became the first GOP member to serve as governor since 2009, Fox News Digital reported. reported.
Braun continued, arguing that Republicans should be grateful that the money is flowing to the Lincoln Project and not to what he would consider a more competent commission.
“I think any donor who gives money to the Lincoln Project and thinks they’re effectively keeping Republicans from being elected president… that’s the exact opposite of what’s happening, and I’d like to see as much money as possible go to the Lincoln Project.”
Other companies controlled by Lincoln Project executives that received gigantic sums from PACs during the 2024 election cycle included Summit Strategic Communications, a consulting firm owned by co-founder of the Lincoln Project Galen reedwho was paid $531,000. Message Mountain Productions, another consulting firm owned by senior advisor Stuart Stevens, received $410,000 from PAC.
Katz Watson Groupwhich is managed by the Lincoln Project Financial Director of the same name, was paid $384,000 for “fundraising consulting,” and Veracity Reigns, which is owned by former senior advisor Tara Setmayerreceived $372,000 from the PAC, mostly for “administrative consulting.” Viking Strategies, which is run past Senior Advisor Trygve Olson and Two Rivers Public Affairs, the “political defense firm” where Lincoln Project Senior Advisor Jeff Timmer works it serves as partners, the two have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting revenue.
Accusations of self-aggrandizement and ineffectiveness have not deterred the Lincoln Project, however, as the PAC has spent $657,000 on operations supporting or opposing political candidates, working primarily to prevent Trump from being elected to a second term, according to the FEC showAmong its recent campaigns is the utilize of geographically specific attack ads, objective people at Trump’s New Jersey golf club paying for anti-Trump mobile billboards at the Republican National Convention and Attempt sow discontent in the Trump campaign by running ads calling for the firing of high-level employees.
“Truth be told, even Trump and his supporters were not the actual target audience of the Lincoln Project attacks,” Braun said. he wrote in 2022, “Trump and company were instead the bait used [to] catch the real target: tens of millions of Trump haters… and their money.”
Wilson, Trippi, Stevens, Galen, Watson, Setmayer, Olson, Timmer and the Lincoln Project did not respond to DCNF’s request for comment.
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Robert Schmad is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Rick Wilson” by Rick Wilson and “Trump Rally” is by Trump’s Team.
