After millions of dollars in ad buys by a handful of Republican super PAC aimed at blunting Donald Trump’s momentum to the GOP presidential nomination on Super Tuesday failed, top GOP donors came together to unite behind one super PAC to attempt to stop Trump.
Meg Whitman, Todd Ricketts and Paul Singer, among other wealthy Republican donors, participated in a conference call of 50 people, The New York Times reported Tuesday night, asking them to give money to the Our Principles PAC.
The super PAC, formed one month ago, spent 4.4 million dollars on anti-Trump ads in Super Tuesday states. The Ricketts family, who are co-owners of the Chicago Cubs, mainly funds the PAC.
The latest “Our Principles” ad that ran slammed Trump for hiring illegal immigrants.
“Trump makes big money off illegal immigrants,” the ad’s narrator says. “Can conservatives trust Donald Trump?”
According to The Times, participants discussed that 71 percent of delegates are still available after Super Tuesday, so Trump cannot nail down the nomination this week. Additionally, themes that participants said could be used as lines of attack included Trump’s business record.
Other super groups that ran spent money recently on anti-Trump ads are Conservative Solutions PAC, American Future Fund, and Club for Growth. According to Time Magazine, two weeks before Super Tuesday, GOP super PACs came together and broadcast 6,000 ads slamming Trump.
“People are starting to panic,” said Johanna Dunaway, a political science professor at Texas A&M University told Time. “So now, you see the efforts to try to stop his path to nomination.”
As of now, Trump leads the Republican primary pool with 285 delegates. Texas Sen. [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] follows with 160 delegates, while Florida Sen. [crscore]Marco Rubio[/crscore] has 87 delegates. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has 25 delegates and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has 8 delegates.
