Right to Rise
| Legal status | Inactive |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Elect Jeb Bush as President |
| Leader | Mike Murphy |
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.
The creation of the Super PAC was announced on January 6, 2015 by Bush. According to Bush, the name was inspired by Congressman Paul Ryan and 1996 Republican vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp. 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". Bush personally raised money for the Super PAC prior to the official announcement of his candidacy.
Bush officially announced his candidacy in June 2015, at which point Mike Murphy took over leadership of Right to Rise. 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.
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. By August 2015, Right to Rise had raised over $100 million.
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".
...
Wikipedia