Club for Growth Action

Club for Growth Action is the fiscal conservative super PAC that has been a kingmaker in Republican primaries for over fifteen years. With $50 million in 2024 spending, the PAC promotes tax cuts, deregulation, free trade, and school choice — and threatens any Republican who votes for spending increases with a well-funded primary challenge. The PAC's rating system, like the NRA's, creates a disciplining mechanism within the Republican caucus. Jeff Yass, the PAC's largest donor at $25 million, is also one of the most interesting mega-donors in American politics. Yass is a co-founder of Susquehanna International Group, a quantitative trading firm, and his estimated $33 billion fortune makes him one of the 20 richest people in America. Most notably, Yass holds a massive stake in ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. When Congress was debating the TikTok ban, Yass lobbied aggressively against it — while simultaneously being the largest funder of a PAC that has enormous influence over the Republican members who would vote on the ban. The conflict is stark: Yass's $33 billion personal interest in TikTok's survival intersects directly with his political spending on the legislators who will decide TikTok's fate. Yass's school choice advocacy also intersects with his business interests. He has invested billions in education technology and school choice organizations. The school voucher programs that Club for Growth promotes would direct public education funding to private schools and education technology companies — the very entities that Yass's investment portfolio is designed to profit from. This alignment of political spending and investment returns makes Yass one of the clearest examples of a mega-donor whose political spending directly benefits his financial portfolio. The PAC's fiscal conservative identity has been tested by Trump-era populism, which favors tariffs and government spending that traditional fiscal conservatives oppose. Club for Growth initially opposed Trump but has largely aligned with the MAGA movement, prioritizing tax cuts and deregulation while de-emphasizing free trade and deficit reduction. This evolution reflects the broader Republican Party's shift from Reagan-era free-market conservatism to Trump-era populist nationalism.