Political leanings: Democratic/liberal
2024 total spending: $97.4 million
American Bridge 21st Century is a liberal hybrid PAC that conducts opposition research and runs ads to aid Democratic candidates and organizations. Since 2019, its official name has been AB PAC.
The group was founded in November 2010 by David Brock, a conservative-turned-liberal activist. After becoming known as a self-described “right-wing hit man,” Brock reinvented himself as a liberal crusader. In 2004, Brock founded Media Matters for America, which monitors “conservative misinformation.”
As part super PAC, AB PAC can accept unlimited donations and has largely been funded by major Democratic donors and labor unions. Those donors must be disclosed, according to federal election rules.
Bradley Beychok, a former president of Media Matters, is the co-founder of the hybrid PAC and served as the group’s president until March 2021. Opposition research veteran Pat Dennis took over as president in December 2022, replacing Jessica Floyd, who previously had been managing director of campaigns for the progressive Hub Project.
For the 2026 election cycle, the group has set a goal of spending $50 million on paid media focusing on nearly 20 House and Senate races in Iowa, Alaska, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. That is in addition to the nearly 150 races covered by its ongoing opposition research for the November elections.
“The campaign will feature local storytellers sharing firsthand accounts of rising costs due to Trump’s tariffs and Iran War, health care challenges including rising costs and Medicaid cuts, and other economic pressures,” American Bridge said in a June press release.
American Bridge said $50 million would be the most the group has ever spent in a midterm cycle, and it aims to expand the Democratic map by also spending in areas that are traditionally Republican.
As of June 30, it had received almost $34.8 million in the 2026 election cycle, and had about $5.1 million on hand, according to its latest monthly filing with the Federal Election Commission in July. Major donors include Deborah Simon, daughter of the late property developer Melvin Simon; AB Foundation, the hybrid PAC’s affiliated advocacy group; and Democracy PAC, a liberal super PAC created by billionaire George Soros.
AB PAC has already spent more than $1 million this election cycle on independent expenditures, which are advertisements and other communications that expressly advocate for or against candidates for office. During the 2026 primary elections, it opposed a trio of Iowa Republicans, including Rep. Ashley Hinson, who won the Republican nomination in the Iowa Senate race; Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who won the Republican nomination for the state’s 1st Congressional District seat; and former state Rep. Joe Mitchell, who won the Republican nomination for the state’s 2nd Congressional District seat.
The group launched a project in April called “The Shaky Eights” targeting 17 “weak” Republican House incumbents, including Reps. French Hill of Arkansas and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina. In Mississippi, it said it planned to spend a little more than $2 million in support of Democratic Senate nominee Scott Colom in his race against Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. It has also contributed over $7 million to Texas Majority PAC, which describes itself as “a project dedicated to electing a Democrat to statewide office in Texas.”
During the 2024 elections, AB PAC spent about $97.7 million in total, including roughly $58.6 million in independent expenditures opposing President Donald Trump. The group ran ads in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin focusing on Trump’s role in rolling back abortion protections, and it financed a $20 million campaign addressing his criminal conviction, his conduct surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and other aspects of his record.
FactCheck.org Undergraduate Fellow Angela Lin contributed to this article.
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