Priorities USA Action is a progressive political action committee and is the largest Democratic Party super PAC. Founded in 2011, it supported Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign. It was the primary super PAC supporting

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

2016 presidential campaign This national electoral calendar for 2016 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2016 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *7 January: Kiri ...

. It focused mainly on high-dollar donors. As of September 2016, it had amassed $132 million in support of Clinton. The top six donors to the super PAC have given $43.5 million, which is a third of the money collected by Priorities USA Action in the 2016 election cycle. The super PAC raised $21.7 million in August 2016, marking its largest monthly fundraising haul.

History

The super PAC was founded in 2011 by former Obama campaign officials Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney to raise funds from wealthy donors, including corporations and unions, and support the re-election of President Barack Obama. As per FEC rules established in the wake of the '' Citizens United'' Supreme Court decision, the group is legally prohibited from coordinating with the candidate or his or her campaign. The group is led by Guy Cecil, who was the political director for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential bid. The Board of Directors includes Cecil, Jim Messina, Charles A. Baker III, Allida Black,

David Brock David Brock (born July 23, 1962) is an American liberal political consultant, author, and commentator who founded the media watchdog group Media Matters for America. He has been described by ''Time'' as "one of the most influential operatives ...

Maria Echaveste Maria Echaveste (born May 31, 1954) is a former U.S. presidential advisor to Bill Clinton and White House Deputy Chief of Staff during the second Clinton administration.

, Justin Gray, William P. Hite,

Stephanie Schriock Stephanie Schriock (born 1973 (confirms birth year)) is an American political strategist and former president of EMILY's List, a position she assumed in 2010. Early life and education Schriock was born in Mankato, MN in 1973. She attended Butte ...

, Marva Smalls, Joe Solomonese, Greg Speed, and Randi Weingarten. Its key backers in 2012 included

Paul Begala Paul Edward Begala (born May 12, 1961) is an American political consultant and political commentator, best known as the former advisor to President Bill Clinton. Begala was a chief strategist for the 1992 Clinton–Gore campaign, which carried ...

, Teddy Johnston, Geoff Garin, Ellen Malcolm,

Jeffrey Katzenberg Jeffrey Katzenberg (; born December 21, 1950) is an American filmmaker, animator, and media proprietor. He became well known for his tenure as chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994. After departing Disney, he was a co-founder and C ...

Bill Maher William Maher (; born January 20, 1956) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is known for the HBO political talk show '' Real Time with Bill Maher'' (2003–present) and the similar ...

Mary Beth Cahill Mary Beth Cahill (born December 1954) is an American political advisor who served as the campaign manager of the John Kerry 2004 presidential campaign. She was Kerry's second campaign manager, replacing Jim Jordan in November 2003, after Jordan wa ...

, and Irwin M. Jacobs. In 2014, the organization began to focus efforts on raising funds to help Hillary Clinton in her 2016 presidential campaign. Jim Messina and

Jennifer Granholm Jennifer Mulhern Granholm (born February 5, 1959) is a Canadian-American lawyer, educator, author, political commentator, and politician serving as the 16th United States secretary of energy since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, she pre ...

(former

Governor of Michigan The governor of Michigan is the head of state, head of government, and chief executive of the U.S. state of Michigan. The current governor is Gretchen Whitmer, a member of the Democratic Party, who was inaugurated on January 1, 2019, as the s ...

) were drafted to serve as co-chairs of the organization. Granholm resigned in August 2015 to join

Correct the Record Correct the Record was a hybrid PAC/super PAC founded by David Brock. It supported Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. The PAC aimed to respond to negative online narratives about Clinton. History The organization was created in May 20 ...

, another pro-Clinton super PAC. The group was headed by

from 2014 until his resignation in February 2015. In 2020, after remaining neutral in the highly contested

2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the 3,979 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention held on August 17–20 to determine the party's nominee for president in the 2020 Un ...

, Priorities USA endorsed Joe Biden after his apparent delegate lead from the

Super Tuesday Super Tuesday is the United States presidential primary election day in February or March when the greatest number of U.S. states hold primary elections and caucuses. Approximately one-third of all delegates to the presidential nominating co ...

primaries Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the c ...

Criticism

On August 7, 2012 Priorities USA Action put out an ad titled ''Understands'', which "offers one man's story to suggest the investment practices of Romney and

Bain Capital Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry se ...

led to the early death of his wife". The man, Joe Soptic, explains that after the GST Steel plant was shut down, he lost his job and health insurance for him and his family which led to his wife's death from cancer.

Politifact PolitiFact.com is an American nonprofit project operated by the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, with offices there and in Washington, D.C. It began in 2007 as a project of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' (then the ''St. Petersburg Times ...

rated the claim made in the ad false, noting that the ad "uses innuendo for a serious allegation, but there's no proof directly linking the death to Bain". Factcheck.org found the ad to be "misleading on several accounts", including that Soptic's wife died "five years after the plant closed". Factcheck.org also points out that, when the plant closed, she had her own employer-sponsored coverage which she lost two years later and, furthermore, that Romney was running the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internationa ...

when the plant closed.

References

External links

* {{Official, https://priorities.org/
Priorities USA Action on OpenSecrets.org

Priorities USA Action at Ballotpedia.org

PolitiFact.com file
Barack Obama 2012 presidential campaign Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign United States political action committees 2012 United States presidential campaigns 2016 United States presidential campaigns 2020 United States presidential campaigns

History

Criticism

See also

References

External links