Pro-Trump super PAC acts as candidate stand-in on bus tour
(AP) — The tour bus features a giant photo of a waving, smiling Donald Trump, but the person who steps off it is actor Jon Voight.
In a presidential race where the Republican candidate has paid little attention to the ground game, this outside group has decided the best way to support him is to take such matters into its own hands.
While Priorities USA, a super PAC backing Democrat Hillary Clinton, had accepted 42 contributions of $1 million or more each and plans to spend $119 million on TV and radio ads by Election Day, no donor to Great America had given more than $75,000, according to federal records through July 31.
Great America claims to have contacted several million new voters through online solicitations, telemarketing and television ads featuring a 1-800 number — something more in line with hawking a gadget than promoting a presidential candidate.
Mike Murphy, who led a super PAC supporting Jeb Bush in the primary, said that while he knows and likes Rollins, he has no idea what the group is doing.
"Since Trump is losing and the ads seem more about signing up donors than moving voters to Trump, cannot say I understand their plan," Murphy emailed.
When the entourage flew in to join the bus Tuesday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the vehicle rolled onto the tarmac just as Chelsea Clinton and her Secret Service detail sped off to a campaign event for her mom.
Aboard the bus this week are popular conservative radio hosts, Salem Media executives and super PAC operatives.