Unite the Country

Political leanings: Pro-Joe Biden

2022 Spending: $5.8 million

Unite the Country is a single-candidate super PAC that supports President Joe Biden. It was started in 2019 by former Biden aides to help promote his 2020 presidential candidacy.

A video on the super PAC’s YouTube channel argues that Biden “laid out a better path for America” through the policy changes he enacted while in office and urges voters to “finish the job” by supporting his reelection in 2024.

The pro-Biden group is run by top Democratic strategists who previously worked on Biden’s presidential or vice presidential campaigns, including its CEO, Steve Schale. The organization’s board is chaired by Mark Doyle, CEO of consulting firm Prairie Avenue Advisors, who worked on Biden’s 2008 presidential campaign. Other board members include Austin Keyser, the former co-chair of climate, energy and environment policy for Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, and political campaign strategist Michelle Maravich.

As of June 30, Unite the Country had raised about $4.4 million for the 2024 election through a combination of individual donations and contributions from other committees, according to its filings with the Federal Election Commission. OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks money in politics, reports that the group has spent almost $1.2 million on pro-Biden independent expenditures, which are advertisements that “expressly advocate” for the election or defeat of a specific candidate. 

For example, during the Democratic presidential primary, the group paid to run an ad featuring Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina talking about Biden eliminating billions of dollars in student loan debt for Americans and capping the cost of insulin for Medicare beneficiaries at $35.

FEC records show that the leading donor to Unite the Country during the 2024 election cycle has been ATU Action Fund, the super PAC of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which has contributed over $1 million. The largest individual donor thus far is California physician Kenneth Duda, who gave $500,000.

OpenSecrets reported in May 2020 that contributions to Unite the Country — which raised almost $50 million for the 2020 election cycle — started to decline after Biden’s campaign praised another pro-Biden super PAC, Priorities USA Action, which “was viewed as a signal to influential donors that they should bankroll” that group instead of United the Country. Then in July 2023, Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign indicated a preference for FF PAC, or Future Forward PAC, another super PAC supporting the president’s reelection.

However, NBC News reported in February that Unite the Country still “plans to spend upward of $40 million” to help Biden in 2024 by “focusing on Donald Trump’s mounting legal issues and his ‘threat to democracy.'” That’s roughly the same amount as the $38.9 million the super PAC spent on independent expenditures advocating for Biden’s election in 2020.

Because Unite the Country focuses on the presidential race, it spent significantly less during the 2022 election cycle — about $5.8 million. But the group placed multiple seven-figure ad buys that touted Biden’s American Rescue Plan in 2021 and his 2022 plans to address high inflation and supply-chain disruptions.

FactCheck.org Undergraduate Fellow Ben Cohen contributed to this article. 

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