Political leanings: Democratic
2018 total spending: N/A
After Sen. Bernie Sanders suspended his 2020 presidential bid in early April, former senior aides of his 2016 and 2020 campaigns joined to form a super PAC to support former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
The super PAC was formed April 22 as Future to Believe In PAC, a reference to Sanders’ 2016 book, “Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In.” It was created to promote the Vermont senator’s progressive policies, while seeking to galvanize Sanders’ supporters to vote for Biden in the 2020 general election.
Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ 2016 campaign manager and a top adviser during his 2020 run for president, told the New York Times in April that he started the super PAC to “lock in some of the gains progressives have made” by electing Biden and removing President Donald Trump.
Mike Casca, a Sanders spokesman, was quoted in the Times story as saying the super PAC has nothing to do with the Vermont senator.
“Bernie has always opposed the creation of super PACs, and his position has not changed,” Casca said. “This is an effort completely independent of him and his campaign.”
Some former Sanders aides criticized Weaver and others for forming the super PAC. “I cannot tell you how many emails I’ve gotten from people who are very much upset about this move,” Nina Turner, a former co-chairwoman of Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, told The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper.
On May 12, the committee changed its name to America’s Promise PAC, removing its association with Sanders’ book.
As an independent expenditure-only committee, America’s Promise can accept unlimited donations and advocate the election or defeat of political candidates, but it is prohibited from coordinating with or donating to political campaigns. It has not yet filed any reports about its fundraising and spending.
Other former Sanders staffers involved with the super PAC include 2020 senior advisers Chuck Rocha and Tim Tagaris.
Rocha’s political consulting firm, Solidarity Strategies, did Latino voter outreach for Sanders’ 2016 campaign. Tagaris, CEO of Aisle 518 Strategies, served as the campaign’s digital fundraising director and is credited with the success of Sanders’ 2016 grassroots fundraising operation, which focused on collecting small amounts from individual donors.
The post America’s Promise PAC appeared first on FactCheck.org.
