Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund is a right-of-center super PAC. It is affiliated with the Tea Party Patriots Foundation and the Tea Party Patriots Action.

Based in Georgia, it was founded in 2013. ¹ The group has opposed the re-election of several establishment Republican politicians, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). ²

Background

The Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund is a right-leaning political action committee that supports the election candidates for federal office. ³

The Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund is dedicated to holding what it considers tax-and-spend politicians accountable for creating a fiscal crisis in America by supporting the opponents of big-spending politicians through contributions, ads exposing their support of high taxes and regulations, and by organizing volunteers to get out the vote. ⁴

Jenny Beth Martin founded the committee in 2013. ⁵ Martin is the co-founder and president of Tea Party Patriots. ⁶

In 2018, the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund was hit with a major data leak that exposed call lists containing the names and phone numbers of more than 527,000 individuals, as well as “strategy documents, call scripts, marketing assets and other files revealing a focused effort to politically mobilize U.S. voters,” according to the Upguard, a Silicon Valley-based cybersecurity firm. The material included information from the 2016 election. ⁷

Challenges to GOP Officeholders

The Citizens Fund supports right-of-center candidates in Republican primaries and general elections including Republican primary opponents of incumbent Republicans such as Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), former Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), and former Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN). ^{8 9}

The organization gathered signatures in 2013 to “fire the Speaker” regarding its frustration with then-House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and has accused Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) of being a “complete sellout.” ¹⁰

Fundraising and Expenditures

At the end of its first year, 2013, Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund had about $4.3 million in receipts and $3.89 million in disbursements with more than $1 million on hand. The group raised $2.9 million of this in donations from donors giving about $200 each. ¹¹

College Loan Corporation CEO Cary Katz gave $50,000 to the group in 2014. ¹² Dick and Liz Uihlein, owners of the Uline shipping company, have also contributed to the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund. ¹³

During the early months of the 2014 election cycle, the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund was criticized for not spending enough money on advertising and boosting the campaigns of candidates they endorsed. The group spent millions on fundraising, polling, and consultants. The Washington Post reported that from the group’s inception in early 2013 through the first quarter of 2014, the TPPCF raised $7.4 million and spent $5.5 million for fundraising and direct mail, and just $184,505 to boost candidates. ¹⁴

In 2016, the TPPCF spent almost $1 million on the presidential election. It spent about $1.2 billion on the 2020 election. ¹⁵ For the 2020 election cycle, David Gore of Benton County, Oregon, gave the largest contribution of the year at $100,000. ¹⁶

Donors to Tea Party Patriots-affiliated organizations came under fire because the group helped organize a rally in Washington, D.C. opposing the certification of the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021, the day rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol during the session for the counting of Electoral College votes. The website for the rally included the Tea Party Patriots as among 11 groups “participating in the “March to Save America” with the “#StopTheSteal coalition.” Tea Party Patriots denounced the Capitol riot after it occurred. ^{17 18}

Policy Advocacy

The Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund advocates for personal freedom, economic freedom, and for a “debt-free future.” The organization has advocated for fixing the national debt with the “Penny Plan,” which would take 1 cent out of every federal dollar spent. ¹⁹

For health care, the fund advocates for repealing the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, and replacing it with free-market health care alternatives. ²⁰

The Citizens Fund’s other issues include advocating for the First Amendment and free speech, advocating for the Second Amendment and gun rights, and advocating for voter integrity measures such as voter ID. ²¹

1. “Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund.” Project Vote Smart. Accessed December 11, 2021. https://justfacts.votesmart.org/interest-group/2500/tea-party-patriots-citizens-fund
2. Jackson, Brooks. “Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund.” FactCheck.org. February 11, 2014. Accessed December 11, 2021. https://www.factcheck.org/2014/02/tea-party-patriots-citizens-fund/
3. “Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund.” Library of Congress. Accessed December 11, 2021. https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0017934/
4.  “Jenny Beth Martin.” LinkedIn. Accessed December 11, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybeth/
5. “Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund.” Library of Congress. Accessed December 11, 2021. https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0017934/
6. Jackson, Brooks. “Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund.” FactCheck.org. February 11, 2014. Accessed December 11, 2021. https://www.factcheck.org/2014/02/tea-party-patriots-citizens-fund/
7. Blake, Andrew. “Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, GOP super PAC, suffers data leak due to misconfigured cloud server.” The Washington Times. October 18, 2018. Accessed December 11, 2021. https://apnews.com/article/2791041a0a72caf4033754a3af09a42a
8. Jackson, Brooks. “Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund.” FactCheck.org. February 11, 2014. Accessed December 11, 2021. https://www.factcheck.org/2014/02/tea-party-patriots-citizens-fund/
9. Sisk, Chas. “Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund to spend $20K for Joe Carr against Lamar Alexander.” The Tennessean. July 23, 2014. Accessed December 12, 2021. https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2014/07/23/tea-party-patriots-citizens-fund-spend-k-joe-carr-lamar-alexander/13049023/
10.  Jackson, Brooks. “Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund.” FactCheck.org. February 11, 2014. Accessed December 11, 2021. https://www.factcheck.org/2014/02/tea-party-patriots-citizens-fund/
11. Cooper, Kent. “Tea Party Groups Get Almost $8 Million in Contributions.” Roll Call. February 1, 2014. https://www.rollcall.com/2014/02/01/tea-party-groups-get-almost-8-million-in-contributions/
12. Jackson, Brooks. “Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund.” FactCheck.org. February 11, 2014. Accessed December 11, 2021. https://www.factcheck.org/2014/02/tea-party-patriots-citizens-fund/
13. Hitt, Tarpley. “Northwestern University Won’t Dump Billionaires Who Bankrolled Jan. 6 Group.” The Daily Beast. March 18, 2021. Accessed December 12, 2021. https://www.thedailybeast.com/northwestern-university-wont-dump-uline-after-owners-richard-and-liz-uihlein-bankrolled-jan-6-group
14. Gold, Matea. “Tea Party PACs reap money for midterms, but spend little on candidates.” The Washington Post. April 26, 2014. Accessed December 11, 2021.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tea-party-pacs-reap-money-for-midterms-but-spend-little-on-candidates/2014/04/26/0e52919a-cbd6-11e3-a75e-463587891b57_story.html
15. Mencimer, Stephanie. “Remember the Tea Party? It’s Still Raising Millions in Dark Money.” Mother Jones. May-June 2021. Accessed December 12, 2021. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/04/remember-the-tea-party-its-still-raising-millions-in-dark-money/
16. Young, Molly. “Oregon man emerges as Tea Party’s newest big donor.” The Oregonian. February 24, 2020.  Accessed December 11, 2021. https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2020/02/oregon-man-emerges-as-tea-partys-newest-big-donor.html
17. Hitt, Tarpley. “Northwestern University Won’t Dump Billionaires Who Bankrolled Jan. 6 Group.” The Daily Beast. March 18, 2021. Accessed December 12, 2021. https://www.thedailybeast.com/northwestern-university-wont-dump-uline-after-owners-richard-and-liz-uihlein-bankrolled-jan-6-group
18. Mihalopoulos, Dan. Chicago-Area Billionaire Gave Millions To ‘Patriots’ Group That Backed Pro-Trump Rally. WBEZ. January 12, 2020. Accessed December 12, 2021. https://www.wbez.org/stories/chicago-area-billionaire-gave-millions-to-patriots-group-that-backed-pro-trump-rally/a5ea9afa-e58f-4987-a698-7d847c244189
19. “About.” Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund. Accessed December 11, 2021. https://www.teapartypatriots.org/citizensfund/about/
20. “About.” Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund. Accessed December 11, 2021. https://www.teapartypatriots.org/citizensfund/about/
21. “About.” Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund. Accessed December 11, 2021. https://www.teapartypatriots.org/citizensfund/about/