Sometime in 2019, J.D. Vance helped co-found a secretive-donor clique called Rockbridge Network.
Launched in partnership with publisher and far-right venture-capitalist Chris Buskirk, Vance’s Rockbridge is apparently designed to amass Silicon Valley’s most-virulently conservative, wealthy folks under one umbrella who are, ultimately, seeking to install Donald Trump back in the White House.
If you read between-the-lines of Dasha Burns’ piece for NBC News, the implication becomes clear: when details are scarce, we should pay even closer attention to actions, not statements. Of the latter, there are scant few:
Rockbridge isn’t yet a brand name in Republican politics, in part because the group has been secretive since its founding in 2019. The exact number of dollars behind the group is also difficult to verify, but one of the sources in attendance last week who is familiar with the group’s operations told NBC News it is in the “high tens of millions.” And while some older GOP donor groups eschew Trump — the Koch network, for example, is staying out of the presidential race after endorsing Nikki Haley in the Republican primary, preferring now to focus down the ballot — Rockbridge is firmly aligned with Trump.
Burns goes on to note that Rockbridge fancies itself as a “sort of anti-Koch network” because, one assumes, Koch Network’s democracy disruption isn’t sprawling enough and has holes to fill?
Rockbridge, according to Reuters, is spinning off subgroups working to recruit churchgoers and, in the process, attracting domestic extremists like Leonard Leo, Susie Wiles and a number of other operators in Trump’s orbit.
