Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman is bankrolling a new super PAC tasked with combating the potential threat of independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s candidacy on President Joe Biden’s reelection bid, the latest campaign filings show.
Hoffman was one of only two contributors listed in the Clear Choice PAC’s first quarter filing, with the LinkedIn co-founder giving the group a $125,000 donation on March 21, to Federal Election Commission (FEC) data. The super PAC, which in early February, is one of many Democratic-aligned hoping to stop Kennedy from spoiling the 2024 election, other independent and third-party candidates.
The super PAC has totaled $375,000 in contributions — $250,000 being from SV Angel founder and managing partner — and disbursed $34,075 to digital media firm Gambit Strategies, to FEC data. Clear Choice PAC entered the second fundraising quarter with $340,924 cash on hand.
Kennedy’s campaign on Thursday that it had secured ballot access in the battleground state of Michigan via the Natural Law Party’s nomination, which the Daily Caller News Foundation confirmed with the secretary of state’s office. Clear Choice PAC has hired elections lawyer and former Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer to challenge the independent’s position on the ballot, to The Detroit News.
Clear Choice PAC was founded by former Biden deputy campaign manager, Pete Kavanaugh, to The Washington Post. Kavanaugh told the outlet that independent and third-party candidates don’t have “any chance of winning a state in November, never mind reaching 270 electoral votes.”
“They are spoilers, plain and simple,” said Kavanaugh. “We’re here to work with allies to ensure those candidates are held accountable, and everything is on the table.”
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has formed its own group to combat independent and third-party candidates, as well as a coalition of lawyers to candidates’ ballot access process. The DNC already took aim at Kennedy by a FEC complaint over an aligned super PAC — American Values 2024 — helping the independent gather ballot signatures. is also on the ballot in Utah, and has gathered the required signatures in North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, , Georgia, Arizona, South Carolina, , and with help from the super PAC.
Other liberal outside groups are organizing similar campaigns against Kennedy and others, like Third Way, American Bridge, MoveOn, Citizens to Save Our Republic and End Citizens United, to NBC News.
Kennedy’s campaign has brought in $11.2 million between Jan. 1 and March 31, and spent $10.6 million, to . The independent entered April with just over $6 million cash on hand.
The Kennedy campaign, Clear Choice PAC, Hoffman and Conway did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
