A group of Donald Trump’s most vocal critics has launched a super PAC to fight Trump’s re-election as well as punish Republicans that they see as Trump’s “enablers.”
One member of the new PAC, known as the Lincoln Project, is George Conway, an attorney and the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.
The Lincoln Project represents a formal and public step forward for those who have been labeled “Never Trumpers.” Until now the movement has been mainly limited to social media and cable news interview attacks.
The organizers of the Lincoln Project have reported fundraising commitments that exceed $1 million to begin soon. They will be launching an advertising campaign in a handful of 2020 battleground states.
The PAC launched a website on Tuesday. The launch coincided with an opinion piece being published in the New York Times titled “Defeat President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box.”
The Lincoln Project will be led by a seven-person advisory council that features GOP’s who have been the most vocal in their criticism of Trump. Most of the members have already left the Republican party.
Members of the PAC include former John McCain adviser Steve Schmidt, former Ohio Gov. John Kasich adviser John Weaver, former New Hampshire GOP chair Jennifer Horn, veteran Republican operative Rick Wilson and George Conway.
George Conway gave an interview about the Lincoln Project this week and he encouraged the new super PAC to involve the senior Trump administration official that anonymously penned the book “Warning.” So far the rest of the group has decided to include the anonymous official.
“I think the more the merrier,” Conway told The Associated Press. “And I hope maybe he — he or she, I don’t know who Anonymous is — will come out someday and join the effort. Because everyone who believes as we do that Donald Trump is a cancer on the presidency and on the Constitution needs to help and join this effort.”
Though the PAC officially launched on Tuesday its main players do not yet have titles, but it has been confirmed that day-to-day operations will be led by Horn and Reed Galen, Galen is a veteran Republican operative, who worked for McCain, but left the GOP because of Trump.
“You’re seeing a shift from talk into action,” said Galen. He described the launch as “a big turning point for the political season and for the president’s reelection.”
The group will reportedly focus on blocking Trump’s re-election as well as defeating Senate candidates that are Trump allies. Right now, the group intends to fight Trump’s re-election in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Arizona, and North Carolina. The group’s Senate efforts will focus on Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina, Maine.
The group is currently reviewing scripts for new ads, which should begin running early next year.
George Conway says that he likely would serve in a “cheerleader” capacity for the new PAC due to his limited political experience.
“I’m not a fundraiser or political consultant, but if I could help in that way and learn how to do that — even to raise a nickel or two — I’ll do it because it’s important,” he said. “For this, I think I can make an exception.”
Conway went on to suggest that the Lincoln Project will pay close attention to Congress’ impeachment proceedings.
“If he’s not removed by the Senate, he needs to be removed at the ballot box,” he said of Trump. “The people in Congress who are enabling him, either actively or passively, they, too, are violating their oaths of office. … And they need to be removed, too.”
