American Bridge 21st Century or AB PAC is a liberal American Super PAC that supports Democratic candidates and opposes

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

candidates. It was founded by

David Brock David Brock (born July 23, 1962) is an American liberal political consultant, author, and commentator who founded the media watchdog group Media Matters for America. He has been described by ''Time'' as "one of the most influential operatives ...

in 2010 and is associated with

Media Matters for America Media Matters for America (MMfA) is a politically left-leaning 501(c)(3), nonprofit organization and media watchdog group. MMfA was founded in 2004 by journalist and political activist David Brock as a counterweight to the conservative Media ...

. It is an

opposition research In politics, opposition research (also called oppo research) is the practice of collecting information on a political opponent or other adversary that can be used to discredit or otherwise weaken them. The information can include biographical, le ...

hub for the Democratic Party. The group physically tracks and monitors Republican candidates and officials and uses social media to deploy its findings.

Methods

American Bridge PAC employs over 50 trackers to follow and record Republican candidates across the country. These trackers are equipped with high-tech recording gear and are assigned Republican targets to follow and record. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', the organization "aims to record every handshake, every utterance by Republican candidates ... looking for gotcha moments that could derail political ambitions or provide fodder for television advertisements by liberal groups." ''USA Today'' described the group's goal as "uncovering an unguarded moment, a controversial position, a gaffe or flip-flop, anything that can be used to torpedo a political foe's campaign." The organization compiles opposition research dossiers on the Republican candidates they are targeting. The group's opposition dossier on

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts ...

was 2,500 pages long. It has attempted to tie Republican candidates to the

political activities of the Koch brothers Charles G. (born 1935) and David H. Koch (1940–2019), commonly referred to as the Koch brothers, have become famous for their financial and political influence in United States politics. From around 2004 to 2019, with "foresight and perseveran ...

. In 2016, American Bridge discovered that the

Trump Institute Trump Institute was a traveling lecture series founded in 2005. The seminar series was owned and operated by Irene and Mike Milin of Boca Raton, Florida. It used Donald Trump's name via a licensing agreement with Trump University. According to the ...

's book was plagiarized, with at least 20 pages coming from a 1995 ''

Success Success is the state or condition of meeting a defined range of expectations. It may be viewed as the opposite of failure. The criteria for success depend on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. One person migh ...

'' article. In 2018, it spent $20.9 million, mostly on employee salaries including the opposition researchers.

Donors

American Bridge PAC is largely funded by wealthy Democratic donors, labor unions, and other PACs (

Sixteen Thirty Fund The Sixteen Thirty Fund is a hub of undisclosed political spending ("dark money") on the American Left. The group serves as a fiscal sponsor for other organizations, incubating and financing various progressive projects. According to ''The New York ...

/ Arabella Advisors). The largest donors of the

2020 United States presidential election The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and the junior U.S. senator from California Kamala H ...

cycle include billionaire

Stephen Mandel Stephen Mandel (born July 18, 1945) is a Canadian politician and leader of the Alberta Party from 2018 to 2019. He previously served as an Alberta cabinet minister from 2014 to 2015 and as mayor of Edmonton, Alberta for three terms from 2004 ...

Bain Capital Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry se ...

co-founder Joshua Bekenstein, real estate Titan George M. Marcus, and

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...

co-founder

Reid Hoffman Reid Garrett Hoffman (born August 5, 1967) is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman was the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for prof ...

. In past election cycles billionaire

George Soros George Soros ( name written in eastern order), (born György Schwartz, August 12, 1930) is a Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist. , he had a net worth of US$8.6 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated mo ...

and others helped the then fledging Super PAC in 2012.

References

External links

* * {{ballotpedia, American_Bridge_21st_Century, American Bridge 21st Century
American Bridge 21st Century at OpenSecrets.org
United States political action committees Organizations based in Washington, D.C. Opposition research Organizations established in 2010 Progressive organizations in the United States 2010 establishments in Washington, D.C.