Make America Number 1 is a right-wing super PAC (political action committee) that supported the presidential campaigns of

Ted Cruz Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz (; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States Senator from Texas since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Cruz served as Solicitor General of Texas fro ...

and

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

in the

2016 United States presidential election The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticke ...

. During the primary campaign, the super PAC was known as Keep the Promise I. In the general election, it informally termed itself Defeat Crooked Hillary PAC, but was not allowed to officially use this term and chose the name Make America Number 1. The PAC is run by

Rebekah Mercer Rebekah Mercer is an American heiress and Republican political donor who is the director of the Mercer Family Foundation. She began overseeing day-to-day operations of political projects for the Mercer family when the Mercers became involved ...

, the second daughter of its largest donor

Robert Mercer Robert Leroy Mercer (born July 11, 1946) is an American hedge fund manager, computer scientist, and political donor. Mercer was an early artificial intelligence researcher and developer and is the former co-CEO of the hedge fund company Renaissan ...

. Robert Mercer donated $15.5 million to the PAC during the 2016 campaign; philanthropist Bernard Marcus donated $2 million; and Cherna Moskowitz donated $1 million. As of November 2, it had received a total of $19,586,131 in donations. Robert Mercer is the fourth-largest contributor to Super PACs in the 2016 cycle. Rebekah Mercer has been chair of the PAC since 2015. Its operations were headed by

Kellyanne Conway Kellyanne Elizabeth Conway (née Fitzpatrick; born January 20, 1967) is an American political consultant and pollster, who served as Senior Counselor to the President in the administration of Donald Trump from 2017 to 2020. She was previously ...

from August 2015 until she was tapped to serve as the Campaign Manager of the Donald Trump campaign in mid-August 2016. The PAC also employed Stephen Bannon, who joined the campaign as CEO. After Conway's departure,

David Bossie David Norman Bossie (born November 1, 1965) is an American political activist. Since 2000, he has been president and chairman of conservative advocacy group Citizens United and in 2016, Bossie was the deputy campaign manager to the Donald Trump ...

took leadership. He left in September to become Trump's Deputy Campaign Manager, and Rebekah Mercer took over leadership of day-to-day operations. During the general election the PAC ran anti-Hillary Clinton ads in a $350,000 campaign in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Make America Number 1 responded to the public release of Donald Trump's conversation with Billy Bush about his treatment of women by stating, "We are completely indifferent to Mr. Trump's locker room braggadocio."

References

{{Reflist, 30em United States political action committees Conservative organizations in the United States