Rand Paul is at risk of not making the main stage at the next debate. | AP Photo Rand Paul-backing super PAC reserves $500,000 in Iowa ads

Rand Paul barely made the main stage of the last Republican debate and he's at risk of missing the next one but if Paul's campaign continues through the Iowa caucuses, he’ll have some support on the TV airwaves from a super PAC.

PurplePAC, a super PAC overseen by longtime libertarian activist and Cato Institute co-founder Ed Crane, has reserved roughly $500,000 in television time in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids in the final two weeks ahead of the Iowa caucuses, according to a media buyer and records with the Federal Communications Commission.


The new ad reservation comes only months after Crane expressed exasperation with Paul’s campaign operation. “I want to grab Rand by the lapels and say, ‘What are you doing?’” Crane told POLITICO in September. “I’m a big fan of Rand Paul. But whatever motivates his campaign, I don’t get it.”

At the time, Crane vowed to stop fundraising for the super PAC, which had raised more than $1 million. “I wasn’t going to raise money to spend on a futile crusade,” he said.

Crane did not respond to request for comment about the super PAC’s new ad buy.

The vast majority of Purple PAC’s funds —$1 million of its $1.18 million — came from Jeffery Yass, a financial trader in Philadelphia. Another $150,000 came from longtime conservative financier and New York investor Howard Rich.

Paul actually has three super PACs backing him but even combined they are not as rich as those of supporting rivals including Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, John Kasich, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. None of the pro-Paul super PACs have bought TV ads since September, even as he has floundered in the polls.

A second pro-Paul super PAC, Concerned America Voters, run by Jeff Frazee with former FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe as a senior adviser, is focused on field organizing and has reported spending $1.6 million on staff and field canvassing to help Paul.

The third pro-Paul group, America’s Liberty PAC, raised the most money in the first half of 2015 — $3.1 million — but has been hampered by the fact that two of its leaders, longtime Paul family adviser Jesse Benton and John Tate, were indicted on campaign finance charges from the 2012 Ron Paul presidential campaign and had to take leave from the PAC’s operations.