Political leanings: Republican/Pro-President Trump
Spending target: Unknown
Great America PAC was formed in February 2016 to support Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. As a so-called “Carey committee” — a traditional political action committee and super PAC hybrid — Great America PAC can contribute to a candidate’s campaign committee and make independent expenditures, provided the funds for each purpose are kept separate.
During the 2016 election cycle, the group raised nearly $28.7 million and spent more than $23 million of that on ads supporting Trump.
In 2016, the PAC’s largest donation was $5 million from Isaac Perlmutter, the CEO of Marvel Entertainment. Its next biggest donors were Robert McNair, the founder, chairman and CEO of the NFL’s Houston Texans, and Andrew Beal, the founder and chairman of Beal Bank, who each gave $2 million.
Republican strategist Ed Rollins continues to lead the Great America PAC, which now aims to “advance President Trump’s agenda day in and day out,” according to its website. Rollins is a Fox News contributor who managed President Ronald Reagan’s reelection campaign in 1984, and was inducted into the Political Consultants Hall of Fame in 2011.
The PAC also has ties to former Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon, who was forced out of his role as White House chief strategist in August 2017.
As of April 20, all of Great America PAC’s independent expenditures for the 2018 election cycle, a total of more than $3.1 million, have gone to support Republicans. All but about $31,000 of that sum has gone to promote President Trump.
The group spent $13,000 to support Senate candidate Roy Moore, $10,000 to support Senate candidate Kelli Ward, $5,000 to support Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn, and just under $3,000 to support House candidate Karen Handel. While Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff in Georgia’s special election in June, Moore lost the Alabama special election to Democrat Doug Jones in December. The Senate elections for Tennessee and Arizona, the states where Blackburn and Ward are running, respectively, have not yet occurred.