Right to Rise

Right to Rise

Legal status	Inactive
Purpose	Elect Jeb Bush as President
Leader	Mike Murphy

Right to Rise is a political action committee (PAC) created to support Jeb Bush in the 2016 presidential election. A Super PAC, Right to Rise is permitted to raise and spend unlimited amounts of corporate, union, and individual campaign contributions under the terms of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision.^[1]

Milestones

The creation of the Super PAC was announced on January 6, 2015 by Bush.^[2] According to Bush, the name was inspired by Congressman Paul Ryan and 1996 Republican vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp.^[2]

Bush officially announced his candidacy in June 2015, at which point Mike Murphy took over leadership of Right to Rise.^[3] Bush personally raised money for the Super PAC prior to the official announcement of his candidacy.^[1] By August 2015, Right to Rise had raised over $100 million.^[4] The Bush campaign planned to leave Right to Rise in charge of television and digital advertising efforts, while the Bush campaign would take charge of voter outreach.^[1] Bush ultimately suspended his run on February 20, 2016, shortly after the South Carolina primary.^[5][6]

Strategy

In the summer of 2015, Mike Murphy explained his strategy: "If other campaigns wish that we’re going to uncork money on Donald Trump, they’ll be disappointed....Trump is, frankly, other people’s problem".^[7] Later in 2015, Murphy further explained that the PAC's strategy was based on the assumption that Trump's campaign would inevitably fail, and so the PAC would instead concentrate on defeating other GOP candidates, "candidates in our lane that we can overcome."^[8]

Criticism

Stephen F. Hayes of The Weekly Standard offered this assessment of Right to Rise in January 2016:^[9]

Trump has had few better allies than Right to Rise, the super PAC supporting Bush's candidacy. There will be plenty of blame to go around if Trump ends up as the Republican nominee, but Right to Rise will have earned a prominent chapter in those histories....Right to Rise, like an all-pro right guard, helped clear a path for Trump by blocking several of his would-be tacklers, in particular Marco Rubio. This was no accident. It was the plan.

Murphy's decision to target Marco Rubio instead of Donald Trump created dissatisfaction among some major donors to the PAC.^[10]

Contributors

The following contributors donated over $1 million to Right to Rise.

Mike Fernandez[11] Francis Rooney[11] Bernard Marcus[11] William Oberndorf[11] Helen Schwab[11] Robert Day[11] Julian Robertson[11] Charles B. Johnson[11] Richard Kinder[11] Nancy Kinder[11] Thomas F. Stephenson[11] Al Hoffman, Jr.[11] Brad Freeman[11] Hushang Ansary[11] Shahla Ansary[11] Ray Lee Hunt[11] Nancy Hunt[11] Raul Rodriguez[11] Chris Cline[11] Louis Moore Bacon[11] Trevor Rees-Jones[11] Jan Rees-Jones[11]

References

1. Isenstadt, Alex (8 May 2015). "Jeb Bush's $100M May". Politico. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
2. Grier, Peter (6 January 2015). "Jeb Bush launches 'Right to Rise' PAC. What does name mean? (+video)". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
3. Jordan, Mary (12 June 2015). "Mike Murphy plots a win for Jeb Bush in the land of Hollywood liberals". Washington Post. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
4. Stokols, Eli (2 August 2015). "Jeb to foes: Tough luck". Politico. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
5. Parker, Ashley; Barbaro, Michael (2016-02-20). "Jeb Bush Bows Out of Campaign, Humbled and Outgunned". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-02-21.
6. Staff, TIME. "Jeb Bush Drops Out of Presidential Race". TIME.com. Retrieved 2016-02-21.
7. Costa, Robert and Rucker, Philip. "Inside the GOP field’s new strategies to ride out the Trump tornado", Washington Post (August 20, 2015).
8. Issenberg, Sasha. "Mike Murphy of Right to Rise Explains His Theory That Jeb Bush Is Still the Candidate to Beat", Bloomberg News (October 20, 2015).
9. Hayes, Stephen. "How Jeb Cleared the Way for Trump", The Weekly Standard (January 23, 2016).
10. Reston, Maeve (February 22, 2016). "Jeb Bush's 2016 departure draws out Mike Murphy critics". CNN. Retrieved 2016-02-22. Right to Rise also angered some of its own donors by targeting Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who could well become the Republican Party's nominee.
11. "Million-Dollar Donors in the 2016 Presidential Race". New York Times. 25 August 2015. Retrieved 16 October 2015.