Joe Walsh files for his own Super PAC

The Grow Up & Be Free PAC would help back conservative candidates in the elections

Published May 8, 2013 1:13PM (EDT)

Former Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., has filed papers with the FEC to form his own Super PAC, called the The Grow Up & Be Free PAC, which is aimed at boosting conservative candidates in the elections.

"What I'm doing is I've been traveling the state for the last four months. We are trying to grow a movement of people in Illinois to tell their politicians - they want to grow up, keep more of what we've make... We already have 2,000 members," Walsh told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Walsh, who lost his race to Democrat Tammy Duckworth in 2012, said that he's mostly focused on candidates in Illinois, though would like to expand so that the Super PAC can support national candidates as well.

Back in February, Walsh announced that he would form the Super PAC as an alternative to Karl Rove's American Crossroads, which had just announced an initiative to try and stop super-conservative candidates from winning their primaries, only to prove unelectable in the general election. "[I]f we had listened to Karl Rove in 2010, there never would have been a congressman Joe Walsh. Rove thought openly Tea Party candidates like Walsh couldn’t win,” Walsh wrote at the time.

 


By Jillian Rayfield

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com.

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Related Topics ------------------------------------------

House Republicans Illinois Joe Walsh Karl Rove Super Pacs Tea Party