Democratic Party Opposition Research

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America Rising is a Political Action Committee (PAC) that produces opposition research on Democratic Party members.^[1] It is located in Alexandria, Virginia.

America Rising Founders

It was founded in March 2013 by Mitt Romney‘s 2012 presidential campaign manager, Matt Rhoades.^[2] Political strategist Tim Miller left the Republican National Committee (RNC) to join the clearinghouse. As of January 2014, between the PAC and the LLC run by fellow opposition research veteran Joe Pounder, the organization employed 47 people, full or part-time.

CNN reported that America Rising would be split into two entities: a super PAC that aimed to spread negative stories about congressional Democratic incumbents and candidates through digital channels and earned media, and an LLC that would house a video library to be shared with GOP candidates, the RNC and other right-leaning groups.

To avoid making illegal in-kind corporate contributions, the LLC would likely need to charge candidates for access to the library.^[3] Pounder and Miller estimated it would have a budget of between $10 and $15 million for the 2013-2014 election cycle.^[4]

Raj Shah, appointed to be White House Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Communications for Research in the Trump Administration in 2017, was also a co-founder of the PAC. He had been deputy research director at the RNC in 2012 and, from there, ultimately became the head of opposition research at the committee for the 2016 campaign. After 2012, he focused specifically on developing deep anti-Hillary Clinton playbooks for America Rising and the RNC.