America’s Liberty PAC is run by Jesse Benton, a longtime aide of Paul and his father, Ron Paul. 2016 Rand Paul super PACs raise $5 million

Two super PACs supporting Rand Paul’s presidential candidacy together raised about $5 million in the first half of the year.

One of the PACs, America’s Liberty, raised $3.13 million, according to FEC filings. The second PAC, Concerned American Voters, told POLITICO it had raised $1.88 million.


That’s far short of the amount raised by the super PAC backing former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, which reported raising more than $100 million in the first half of the year, and short of those backing other top-tier Republican presidential contenders, such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

The two biggest donors to America’s Liberty were Nevada data mogul George Macricostas, who gave $1.1 million, and Philadelphia options trader Jeff Yass who gave $1 million.

America’s Liberty PAC is run by Jesse Benton, a longtime aide of Paul and his father, former Rep. Ron Paul, and John Tate, the president of the libertarian millennial group Campaign for Liberty.

Matt Kibbe, formerly of FreedomWorks, is a senior adviser for Concerned American Voters; Jeff Frazee is the super PAC’s president.

Each of the two super PACs has a different focus: America’s Liberty PAC will likely concentrate on paid media, while Concerned American Voters emphasizes grass-roots organizing.

“I am very pleased with these results so far,” Tate said in a statement. “This sum shows that Sen. Paul has real support in this race for president and we are working tirelessly to assist him by airing TV ads, managing and collecting data and running a top-notch digital campaign.

“We are just getting started and this financial support will allow us to continue to give Sen. Paul the help he needs in this race,” Tate said. “Instead of spending millions on slick TV ads, we have invested and are building a tech-savvy, highly targeted data-driven effort that can be used to effectively manage the tremendous grassroots support that Sen. Paul has built over the years.”

Two weeks earlier, Paul’s official campaign reported that it had raised $7 million in the most recent fundraising quarter.

Ken Vogel and Alex Isenstadt contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: The original version of this article said Tate helped run Concerned American Voters. He helps run America’s Liberty.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Jennifer Shutt @ 07/24/2015 05:10 PM CORRECTION: The original version of this article said Tate helped run Concerned American Voters. He helps run America’s Liberty.