OK GOP Consultants To Lead Cruz SuperPAC Group Effort
First on CNN: Ted Cruz Super PACs target Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas
By Theodore Schleifer, CNN
The well-funded super PACs backing Ted Cruz are extending their footprint into the heartland, beginning a major push Tuesday to win three early March states where Cruz hopes to amass a lead in delegates.
Keep the Promise, a constellation of four super PACs that has spent very little of its tens of millions so far, is opening a Midwest outpost to organize in Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and a few other to-be-determined states, spokeswoman Laura Barnett told CNN on Tuesday.
The group has hired two Oklahoma operatives, Philip Jackson and Holly Gerard, to lead the effort. The pair of strategists will focus on mobilizing volunteers and organizing political coalitions in the Midwest.
Despite their fundraising success, the groups were initially slow to build a professional political operation to steer the dollars. After a behind-the-scenes replacement of the groups’ leader this summer, Keep the Promise has slowly beefed up its shop, recently adding a senior fundraiser at the National Rifle Association, Campbell Smith, and a top operative at the Madison Project, Drew Ryun.