Matt Kibbe Leaving FreedomWorks for Super PAC Backing Rand Paul

[LatinsforPaul]

FreedomWorks’s Matt Kibbe Leaving for Super PAC Backing Rand Paul

WASHINGTON—As the Republican primary season heats up, the head of one of the nation’s most prominent tea-party organizations is leaving to run an independent group aimed at boosting Sen. Rand Paul’s presidential prospects.

Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, is leaving the organization in July to help run a super PAC called Concerned American Voters that backs the Kentucky Republican. The group will support Mr. Paul with an organizing presence and field operation in key states.

Mr. Kibbe will join Concerned American Voters with the title of senior adviser. Jeff Frazee, the executive director of the conservative group Young Americans for Liberty, will serve as president of the new super PAC. Mr. Frazee also will remain in his position at Young Americans for Liberty, which was formed as an outgrowth of the Ron Paul 2008 presidential campaign.

[mod edit] website for Concerned American Voters:

http://concernedamericanvoters.com/

[William Tell]

Woah, that's pretty huge. Kibbe is a big name.

[Bastiat's The Law]

Big news!

[jkr]

[georgiaboy]

awesome. another fuel car added to the freedom freight train.

[Mr.NoSmile]

I mean, it's a man from FreedomWorks. I don't really see him backing anyone else. So good for Paul, but to make inroads, get the large amounts and such, you need to go beyond the liberty crowd. I doubt Kibbe would have hitched his wagon to the likes of Santorum or Bush or Rubio, for example.

[RichardAlpert]

I mean, it's a man from FreedomWorks. I don't really see him backing anyone else. So good for Paul, but to make inroads, get the large amounts and such, you need to go beyond the liberty crowd. I doubt Kibbe would have hitched his wagon to the likes of Santorum or Bush or Rubio, for example.

well, they're mostly anti-establishment, so they also support the likes of Cruz, Carson; the article also mentioned that FreedomWorks may get behind a candidate after an anti-establishment front runner emerges (anti-Bush)

for the past few years, they've pumped up just as much support for Cruz, as they did for Paul

Having Kibbe on board is HUGE

[Gage]

CAV is already doing great ground game work, I can't wait for Kibbe to make it even better.

[nayjevin]

I mean, it's a man from FreedomWorks. I don't really see him backing anyone else. So good for Paul, but to make inroads, get the large amounts and such, you need to go beyond the liberty crowd. I doubt Kibbe would have hitched his wagon to the likes of Santorum or Bush or Rubio, for example.

Freedomworks is not the liberty crowd. Kibbe supports the death penalty. This is almost definitely good, but FreedomWorks is milquetoast.

[jct74]

press release

New Concerned American Voters Super PAC Launches to Support Rand Paul Presidential Bid
Super PAC launches with millions pledged, 40 full-time staff in Iowa

WASHINGTON, June 18, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Concerned American Voters, a political action committee supporting Sen. Rand Paul's campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, launched today with millions of dollars committed and 40 full-time field staff in the key primary state of Iowa, President Jeff Frazee and Senior Advisor Matt Kibbe announced.

"Once in a while, you discover a presidential candidate who has the potential to change the political conversation, to elevate key issues in voters' minds, and disrupt and transform a tired Republican brand," said Kibbe. "Once in a lifetime, maybe, you will have an opportunity to support a transformative candidate who can do all of these things, and win. Rand Paul is that candidate."

Kibbe is the former president and founder of FreedomWorks, a national community-building and grassroots advocacy organization of more than 6 million Americans who are passionate about promoting free markets and individual liberty. Frazee is executive director of Young Americans for Liberty and previously served as the national youth coordinator for Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign committee.

Concerned American Voters launches with millions of dollars in funding pledged so far.

...

read more:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...300101344.html

[jct74]

website:

http://concernedamericanvoters.com/

[Foreigner]

"Concerned American Voters announced that it already has 40 full-time paid staffers in the Republican primary state of Iowa and says it has millions of dollars in fundraising pledges lined up"

!!!

This is huge

[RabbitMan]

"Concerned American Voters announced that it already has 40 full-time paid staffers in the Republican primary state of Iowa and says it has millions of dollars in fundraising pledges lined up"

!!!

This is huge

Well it looks like the campaign isn't broke anymore. Maybe Steve Forbes kicked in?

[WD-NY]

Woah. Massive massive win for team Rand.

[garyallen59]

Glenn Beck mentioned this today. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This is awesome news!

[TaftFan]

Freedomworks is not the liberty crowd. Kibbe supports the death penalty. This is almost definitely good, but FreedomWorks is milquetoast.

Kibbe is a libertarian, death penalty or not. He has been since college at least.

I hope he brings his email list.

[William Tell]

Freedomworks is not the liberty crowd. Kibbe supports the death penalty. This is almost definitely good, but FreedomWorks is milquetoast.

FreedomWorks has moved more towards liberty under Kibbe's leadership, they were big supporters of Liberty Candidates last cycle. I don't know a lot about Kibbe, but I don't see what the death penalty has to do with anything here. Lots of liberty people are not opposed to the death penalty in theory for some crimes.

[Vanguard101]

Kibbe has had a tremendous impact on shifting FW to libertarianism. He has also helped to get libertarians elected. He was really supportive of Brannon. I think Kibbe is at heart an ancap. I remember having a conversation with him at ISFL. FreedomWorks is losing a lot of people though

[jj-]

Does this mean that donors now have a place to send money that won't be squandered by Jesse Benton?

[Sola_Fide]

Freedomworks is not the liberty crowd. Kibbe supports the death penalty. This is almost definitely good, but FreedomWorks is milquetoast.

They bring a lot of the Tea Party crowd over to a more liberty oriented position. Freedomworks was very involved in Rand's campaign for Senate and Massie's run for the House.

[William Tell]

Does this mean that donors now have a place to send money that won't be squandered by Jesse Benton?

Jesse Benton is not running the official campaign.

[r3volution 3.0]

[jj-]

Jesse Benton is not running the official campaign.

Who says he was? That's irrelevant because donors can't legally send a lot of money to the official campaign.

[eleganz]

This is huge huge huge news. Kibbe is pretty badass and is actually a pretty big liberty guy. This is not great news for Cruz since we can safely assume Freedomworks infrastructure will be strategically facilitating Rand.

We have Kibbe running the tea party game and Frazee running the youth game. Wow just amazing, I was not expecting this.

All the big guns are coming out of the safe for this battle. Everybody be on your A game, this is one serious campaign. Time to ride this randwagon to the white house.

[William Tell]

Who says he was? That's irrelevant because donors can't legally send a lot of money to the official campaign.

Donor just means someone who donates. Yes, I am aware of FEC limits on donations to presidential campaign committees.

[jj-]

Donor just means someone who donates.

They can't send money freely to the official campaign. Having a PAC without Jesse Benton allows a donor for the first time to send as much as he wants without having it administered by Jesse Benton.

[rich34]

This is very good news!! And actually it's not so surprising that Glen Beck mentioned this, freedom works actually sponsors a lot of the material on his show. Hopefully this helps steer Cruz folks towards Rand. Beck does his absolute best to steer as many confused liberty folks to Cruz as he possibly can, along with his cohorts...

[NewRightLibertarian]

Freedomworks is not the liberty crowd. Kibbe supports the death penalty. This is almost definitely good, but FreedomWorks is milquetoast.

FreedomWorks was probably the most non-objectionable Washington D.C. thinktank or political organization from a libertarian's perspective under Kibbe.

[nayjevin]

FreedomWorks was probably the most non-objectionable Washington D.C. thinktank or political organization from a libertarian's perspective under Kibbe.

I'm alright with that, it's just that they are clearly wrong i.e. promote ideas and policies that are unjust / not acceptable to some extent - which means it's not like it's the crux of liberty civilization.

It's Dick Armey, Matt Kibbe, tea party, glenn beck type stuff. Which means it's not libertarian type stuff so much as buchananism / paleo / liberty leaning stuff. That's fine and ok with me - that's where the bulk of conservative opinion that is not totally insane rests.

Let's look at the current freedomworks website. Top of the page: 'STOP OBAMA!' Ok. Stop Obama. So this is a group appealing to misplaced rage among people who identify with one side of a two party system. So this is a place for further wading in the quagmire of two party politics. Great! It will probably have far more impact than an equal site that doesn't, because most people are stuck there. But again, it's no crux of liberty. Pretty on point, but not focused at people who are ready for the truth on all issues, no matter how politically expedient that truth may be. And that's fine. After all, we're in the middle of the greatest attempt at, whatever you might want to call it, that we have seen, and I support that.

The issue with the death penalty is that it is a litmus in my opinion. If one supports the death penalty, and can speak of 'compassionate' ways to employ it, as Kibbe has, one cannot be trusted to be on the right side of any given issue. One must be blind to the errors of the justice system to support it. It has to be okay with a person to let a government murder an individual. That ain't liberty.

Again, with what Rand's doing, this is almost certainly good, and I'm no Kibbe hater, I just can't trust him to be on the right side of an issue because of what I've heard him say. I can bet he's closer to liberty than 98%, just sayin.

[philipped]

Does this mean that donors now have a place to send money that won't be squandered by Jesse Benton?

Yes that is EXACTLY what that means. And yeah this is awesome news there are now more avenues to give big checks too. People who can't give to campaign because its a fat check, and don't wanna give to Benton because of 08 & 12 now have two notable people Kibbe and Jeff Frazee (who is just as significant as Kibbe to me imo) allows the capabilities of "independent expenditure" to be targeted to a large sector of people that they both could potentially tap. This is VERY good.