Priorities USA

Priorities USA is a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization affiliated with the liberal super PAC Priorities USA. Senior Obama administration staffers Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney created the organization in 2011 to advocate for liberal issues in conjunction with its sister-super PAC’s efforts to help elect Democrats and re-elect President Barack Obama.^{1 2}

Democrats and liberals (including President Obama³) have disparaged this type of legal entity when used by conservatives.² As such, the organization has been criticized as a win at all costs, hypocritical ethical surrender by the Democratic Party.⁴ The group’s hypocrisy was demonstrated by the fact that Paul Begala, a notable television commentator who had previously railed against unlimited money in politics, had at the same time taken nearly $600,000 from Priorities USA and its sister-Super PAC ¹

Priorities USA uses its funds to support liberal organizations and push for a decidedly liberal political agenda. The organization has given millions to other left wing groups such as Planned Parenthood, American Bridge 21st Century, and President Obama’s second inaugural committee. ⁵ The group has advocated for higher taxes, to protect Obamacare, environmentalist energy policies, and liberal immigration policies.⁶ In 2017, Priorities USA re-launched in an effort to become a permanent center of opposition to President Donald Trump’s policies.⁷ It has since run six- and seven-figure ad campaigns in general opposition to President Donald Trump⁸ and against Republican efforts to cut taxes,⁹ repeal Obamacare,¹⁰ and restrict immigration.¹¹

Organizational Overview

Priorities USA is a non-profit organization affiliated with the liberal super PAC Priorities USA Action. The two organizations were created together to oppose conservative policies and defeat Republican political candidates. ¹²

The first Priorities USA non-profit formed in 2011¹³ by President Barack Obama’s former-deputy press secretary Bill Burton and Obama’s former-senior advisor Sean Sweeney.¹⁴This first Priorities USA entity was active through 2013.¹

According to IRS data, a second Priorities USA entity was created under a separate employer identification number in 2016 and was granted non-profit tax-exempt status in 2017. It is located in the same building as its sister super PAC, Priorities USA Action.^{15 16}

Dark Money

Priorities USA is a 501(c)(4) organization that can raise unlimited funds from undisclosed donors, the type of arrangement that President Obama³ and other Democrats had disparaged when practiced by conservatives.²

Mother Jones labeled Priorities USA “one of the most secretive dark-money groups of the 2012 campaign season,” and called attention to the fact non-profits were prohibited from spending the majority of its money on pure politics but alleged that Priorities USA was a “purely political” nonprofit supporting Democrats.²

Priorities USA’s founders acknowledged that the organization was fundamentally at odds with the Democratic Party’s purported campaign finance policies, but argued that winning elections was more important than living by the Democratic platform.¹²

The formation of Priorities USA was controversial even among Democrats, Former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) said Priorities USA founders were “playing with the devil,” and the liberal blog Huffington Post labeled it a type of hypocritical “ethical surrender.”⁴

CNN commentator and Daily Beast author Paul Begala once wrote that the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which allowed 501(c)(4) advocacy groups like Priorities USA to solicit unlimited contributions, had “auctioned off democracy.”¹⁷ However, Begala was Priorities USA’s top independent contractor and paid more than $184,000 in 2011 for “communications consulting.” Begala was also paid over $400,000 from Priorities USA Action that same year.¹

Super PAC Expenditure

In 2012 Priorities USA gave $215,234 worth of contributions to its sister super PAC organization, Priorities USA Action. The transfer was criticized for allowing the super PAC to skirt disclosure requirements.¹⁸

Campaign finance lawyer Kenneth Gross said that the undisclosed money was “far more troubling” than the disclosed super-PAC contributions and spending.¹⁸

Operations

Early Years

From 2011 to 2013 Priorities USA distributed $5 million in grants to liberal organizations including, $2.3 million to Planned Parenthood, $255,000 to various Occupy Sandy organizations, $75,000 to American Bridge 21st Century, $65,000 to the League of Conservation Voters, $55,000 to People For the American Way, and $10,000 to Barack Obama’s second inaugural committee. ⁵

During that same time, the organization also spent $3 million on direct advocacy, which funded liberal issue advertisements, a now unrelated website www.prioritiesusa.org, direct mail, polling, and various other communications efforts.¹⁹

Priorities USA’s issue advocacy agenda called for higher taxes,²⁰ opposed Republican budget cuts,⁶ protected Obamacare from repeal efforts, promoted environmentalist energy policies, and supported liberal immigration policies.⁶

However, Mother Jones argued that it was hard to determine what exactly the organization spent its money on given that Priorities USA’s known expenditures should not have cost as much as the organization reportedly spent.² In total Priorities USA disclosed that it $3 million advocacy budget paid for two ads and two direct mail pieces.

2017 Re-Launch

In 2017, Priorities USA sought to remake itself as a permanent center of opposition to the impending Trump administration, with the long-term aim of helping the Democratic Party claw back voters it lost in the November election. The group’s efforts were supported by a number of liberal allies including Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the American Federation of Teachers, the Human Rights Campaign, and the Latino Victory Project.⁷

Priorities USA currently describes itself as a liberal advocacy and mobilization organization committed to fighting against Republican President Donald Trump and his conservative allies in favor of Democratic priorities.²¹

Since its re-launch in early 2017, the organization has disseminated numerous digital and traditional advertisements against various policies put forth by President Donald Trump.

Priorities USA’s first media buy after its re-launch was a digital advertising series run in partnership with the left-leaning group Indivisible attacking President Trump and calling upon Republicans to stand up to the President.⁸

The group partnered with the Democratic Party aligned House Majority PAC, ²² to run a digital public relations campaign attacking Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare.¹⁰ The effort included the creation of a website attacking the plan²³ and digital ads attacking at least ten vulnerable legislators for their votes in support of the repeal plan.²⁴

Priorities USA ran a $2 million campaign including both digital and television ads attacking Trump and 20 Republican members of Congress for supporting a plan to cut corporate tax rates.⁹²⁵

In January 2018, Priorities USA ran a million-dollar television and digital ad campaign attacking Republicans for failing to pass a federal spending plan that included legal status for illegal immigrants given temporary status by legally suspect Obama administration executive actions.¹¹

Additionally Priorities USA ran a number of state-based ads attacking conservative legislative policies. In New Hampshire the group partnered with the liberal League of Women Voters group to condemn state legislators that supported a bill intended to combat fraudulent voting.²⁶ Similarly, Priorities USA tweeted that “voter fraud isn’t real.”²⁷

Priorities USA partnered with the left-of-center group Color of Change to issue multiple research reports as to how Democrats should message their attacks against President Trump and other Republicans in order to foster the anti-Republican animosities held by African-American voters.²⁸

2020 Election Cycle

On March 24, 2020, Priorities USA Action announced it would begin spending $6 million on a series of ads criticizing President Donald Trump over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. ²⁹ The ads will be shown within four key 2020 battleground states: Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. ³⁰ This is part of an effort to spend up to $150 million on anti-Trump campaigns within the midwest in order to appeal to the President’s voting base within the region. ³¹ FEC records show that Democracy PAC, one of George Soros’ left-leaning PACs, contributed $3 million towards Priorities USA Action on Feb. 21, about 77 percent of the $3.9 million it raised during the month of February. ³²

On April 1, 2020, Priorities USA spent $1 million on a new ad comparing Trump’s response to the Covid-19 Pandemic to previous comments made by former vice president Joe Biden on how he would deal with the pandemic if elected president in November 2020. Katie Drapcho, Priorities USA Action’s director of research and polling, commented “This is the most important issue in the country today.” She added, “I think it’s a defining moment for Trump’s presidency and the country. And our view is that it’s absolutely critical that voters hear the facts about Trump’s inaction and misleading statements.” ³³

People

Priorities USA’s current chief strategist is Guy Cecil.⁷ Cecil previously served as a top aide to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 Presidential campaign.³⁴ He also leads the group’s affiliated Priorities USA Action super PAC. ⁷

Patrick McHugh, serves as the organization’s executive director, and Anne Caprara serves as a senior adviser.⁷

The group’s initial Board of Directors in 2011 included a number of major Democratic financiers³⁵such as Taco Bell heir and former Democracy Alliance chairman Rob McKay,³⁶ Emily’s List founder Ellen Malcolm, and Hillary Clinton’s 2008 Finance Director³⁷ Jonathan Mantz.³⁵