July 31, 2015

Ted Cruz Super-PAC Has Just One Donor

But he gave a lot of money.

Jerry Mennenga/Zuma

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


A super-PAC backing Ted Cruz called Keep the Promise II just filed its campaign disclosure, and it stands rather in contrast with the filing this morning from Jeb Bush’s super-PAC. Right to Rise, the Bush-backing super-PAC, revealed a list of donors that included anonymous shell corporations, 28 former ambassadors, and hundreds of wealthy and moneyed elite from around the country, requiring this reporter to do plenty of math to determine how much came from big donors and how much came from very big donors. Keep the Promise II’s disclosure is much simpler.

One guy gave $10 million.

That’s it.

Although the super-PAC raised more money than the actual campaigns of 14 of the 20 declared major candidates, there were no other donors.

The guy’s name is Toby Neugebauer. He is the billionaire founder of a private-equity firm, and his father is Congressman Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas).

To be fair, it’s one of at least three super-PACs backing Cruz. The others have not yet filed their reports, but will likely list donors other than Neugebauer.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate