Two Republican operatives who played senior roles helping the presidential campaign of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida have taken on leadership roles in a new pro-Trump super PAC that could spend tens of millions of dollars in the presidential race and has ties to Elon Musk.
The aides, Generra Peck, who initially managed the DeSantis campaign, and Phil Cox, a former head of the Republican Governors Association who ran the DeSantis political operation in the years before his run, are quietly guiding the group, America PAC, according to three people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
The super PAC has acquired an air of mystery in the Trump orbit, with other outside groups largely in the dark about its plans. The involvement of Mr. Cox and Ms. Peck may help legitimize it within the Republican establishment as it aims to become one of the leading groups on behalf of Mr. Trump. Ms. Peck and Mr. Cox are two of the party’s most prominent operatives and now lead a public affairs firm, P2 Pathway Public Affairs, and their involvement also helps unify the DeSantis and Trump orbits even further.
Also involved, according to a separate person briefed on the matter, is Charlie Spies, a senior election lawyer for the Republican Party. Mr. Spies, Ms. Peck and Mr. Cox declined to comment.
The group has taken pains to be secretive. Joe Lonsdale, an Austin-based tech entrepreneur, has played a key role in the group, recruiting many of his friends — including the Jimmy John’s founder, John Liautaud; Antonio Gracias, a former director of Tesla; and the Craft family of Kentucky — to help fund the effort. Mr. Musk, who recently endorsed former President Donald J. Trump and is a friend of Mr. Lonsdale, has described himself as having “created” the group and is expected to donate, but the amount remains unclear.
Ms. Peck rose to prominence as the initial campaign manager for Mr. DeSantis’s bid. By the end of the Republican primary race, she had drawn criticism for the Florida governor’s failure to live up to expectations. Mr. Cox worked for outside groups backing Mr. DeSantis during the primary contest.
Another Republican consultant, Dave Rexrode, who has led the political operation of Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia and is also a former director of the R.G.A., is playing a smaller role in the group than Ms. Peck and Mr. Cox, with whom Mr. Rexrode has worked closely.
The group has spent $21 million on independent expenditures — primarily on a voter turnout program.
On Monday, Mr. Musk confirmed that he was connected to the group, saying that he created it in part to serve as a moderating influence in politics. Some donors to the group have similarly expressed a belief that it is not meant to be partisan but merely aims to deliver a ground game that ensures a “fairly conducted” election, according to one donor to the organization.
Mr. Musk dismissed a report that he would spend $45 million a month on the group as “not true.”
“It’s not meant to be sort of a hyperpartisan PAC,” he told the conservative commentator Jordan Peterson, adding that he wanted to “promote the principles that made America great in the first place. I wouldn’t say that I’m, for example, MAGA, or Make America Great Again. I think America is great. I’m more M-A-G, Make America Greater.”
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