'Nerve center for the MAGA movement' gets bulk of its funding from this one secret donor

24 November 2023

The Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) — a rapidly growing group dedicated to providing infrastructure for the far right — has been described as a "hub" for the MAGA movement. And its largest donor has just been unmasked.

Founded by former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), the CPI has quietly become the media, messaging and staffing hub for the most extreme faction of the Republican Party, particularly the far-right House Freedom Caucus. Former President Donald Trump helped kick it off with a $1 million donation. Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) have ties to CPI, former Trump immigration adviser Stephen Miller runs one of CPI's affiliate groups and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is one of its leaders. Its funding has increased exponentially in recent years, and a large portion of that money has come from a single contributor.

The Daily Beast reported Friday that, according to 2021 tax documents, Houston, Texas-based businessman Mike Rydin has been quietly funding the group's sprawling expansion in Capitol Hill, helping it acquire pricey real estate and develop a multimillion-dollar, 2,200-acre retreat center in Maryland. Rydin is a relative unknown in donor circles, and apparently doesn't even crack the top 100 political donors in the US according to OpenSecrets.

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In 2020, records show Rydin gave $250,000 to the group. However, in 2021, Rydin made a whopping contribution of $25,638,709, which, according to ProPublica's nonprofit database, made up more than half of CPI's total haul of $45,707,730.

"Until that year, CPI had never posted a net revenue of more than $800,000; but with Rydin’s boost, the group turned in a net gain of more than $28 million," the Beast wrote.

"It is striking that a person with such a low political profile would emerge as the single biggest donor to the nerve center for the MAGA movement," Campaign finance law expert Brendan Fischer told the Beast.

Thanks to Rydin's largesse, CPI was able to acquire top-tier DC real estate valued at tens of millions of dollars that has since been converted into what the Washington Post called a "MAGA campus."

"[CPI] now controls four commercial properties along a single Pennsylvania Avenue block, three adjoining rowhouses around the corner, and a garage and carriage house in the rear alley," the Post's Paul Schwartzman wrote in March. "CPI’s aim, as expressed in its annual report, is to transform the swath of prime real estate into a campus it calls 'Patriots’ Row.'"

According to Rydin's profile on the website of far-right group Turning Point USA, he is the founder and CEO of Heavy Construction Software Systems (HCSS). The Daily Beast reports that Rydin's company made hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue before he eventually retired in 2022 to focus on philanthropy.

In addition to his financial support of CPI, Rydin has also donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to super PACs backing Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and groups aligned with far-right members of Congress like House Freedom Action (the political arm of the House Freedom Caucus) and its Senate counterpart, Senate Conservatives Action.

Click here to read the Beast's full report.

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