Trump is unelectable, says $3.6 mn ad campaign tied to influential group

By Gregory Korte

A new super PAC aligned with the conservative Club for Growth is speaking directly to Donald Trump’s supporters in a $3.6 million advertising campaign, questioning his electability and telling Republicans they need a candidate who can attract voters to win a general election.
 

The 60-second ad features a former Trump supporter named John sitting on his front porch steps and describing Trump as a losing bet for Republicans. 

“The election is really important because we’re going in the wrong direction,” John says. “I mean we definitely need somebody that can freaking win. I think you’d probably lose that bet if you voted for Trump.”

The ad, paid for by a new super political action committee called Win It Back PAC, will begin running Tuesday in early voting states Iowa and South Carolina, according to a person familiar with the strategy.

Win It Back filed with the Federal Election Commission last week and has not yet disclosed its donors. But the PAC is closely aligned with Club for Growth, listing the group’s president, David McIntosh, as its assistant treasurer and sharing a Washington office. 

Club for Growth is an anti-tax group influential in Republican primary contests and funded by conservative donors like Uline Inc. CEO Richard Uihlein and Jeff Yass of Susquehanna International Group. 

The Win It Back ad doesn’t support any of Trump’s major challengers for the nomination, but Uihlein and Yass are both supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Polls show Trump is the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, well ahead of DeSantis in second.  

Club for Growth has had a tumultuous relationship with Trump, opposing him in 2016 but warming to him by the 2020 election. In 2022, the group split with Trump once again when it supported Senate candidates like Josh Mandel over Trump’s pick of J.D. Vance in Ohio. Trump’s candidates won the GOP nominations in their states.  

In a campaign appearance in Iowa last week, Trump attacked the group as “the worst.”

“I was with them for a while,” Trump said. “And then we had arguments over candidates that I liked.”