4 months ago
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Political Leanings: Republican
2022 Spending: N/A
SAG PAC Inc., a super PAC with Republican connections, was established in late June. The group says it is “dedicated to educating the American public about the real record” of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who launched his independent presidential campaign in October.
On its website, SAG PAC calls Kennedy a “pro-choice, progressive liberal who believes we should be prioritizing the ‘climate crisis.'” The group’s advertising makes similar claims about Kennedy, who started running for president in 2023 as a Democrat.
Kennedy’s position on abortion has shifted at times, but he wrote in May that he supports access to abortion up until the point of fetal viability. He also has said he believes climate change is an “existential” threat, but will not “insist” that others share his belief.
News outlets have noted that SAG PAC appears to be trying to make Kennedy more appealing to Democratic voters and less appealing to Republicans.
“It’s a tactic similar to one increasingly deployed by Republicans and Democrats in recent cycles, in both general elections and primaries: Strategists sometimes target candidates in subversive ways, seemingly pitching their opponent to the other side in order to make them less attractive to their own voters,” the New York Times wrote in an early August story.
Super PACs such as SAG PAC are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money advocating for or against the election of candidates. As of Aug. 10, the group had put almost $7 million into advertising about Kennedy, including mailers and text messages, according to independent expenditure filings with the Federal Election Commission.
SAG PAC is required to disclose its donors, but its most recent quarterly report does not list any contributions by June 30. Information about its fundraising after that date may not be available until October, when the next quarterly reports are due to the FEC.
The treasurer of SAG PAC is Charles Gantt, the senior vice president of Red Curve Solutions, a consulting firm that provides financial and compliance services for political campaigns and organizations. The New York Times reported that Gantt is also the treasurer and secretary of Securing American Greatness, a pro-Donald Trump nonprofit, which has initials identical to SAG PAC. Securing American Greatness is run by Trump’s former spokesman Taylor Budowich, and the so-called dark money group can raise and spend money without disclosing the sources of its funding.
FactCheck.org Undergraduate Fellow Sarah Usandivaras contributed to this article.
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