How Direct Marketing Fueled Ben Carson’s Rise

“If you want to understand the conservative appeal of the former director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, messages like this, which go out by the thousand on conservative email lists, are the place to start. No prospective candidate’s name and likeness, including the Democratic field-clearer Hillary Clinton, has been as successful in attracting small donations over the last year than that of Carson,” Time reports.

“In addition to his own political action committee, Carson has lent his name and signature to other online efforts, including Newt Gingrich’s American Legacy PAC, where he is the face of a $5.9 million campaign called ‘Save our Healthcare,’ which raises money in the name of fighting President Obama’s health insurance reforms. A separate independent effort, the National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee, raised more than $12 million in the 2014 cycle through email and direct mail with appeals featuring Carson’s name. That effort, which Carson plays no direct role in supporting, collected more during the reporting period than Ready For Hillary, the SuperPAC run by Hillary Clinton’s former aides to prepare the ground for her campaign.”

“Carson’s online fundraising efforts are so prolific that his own political operation is sometimes not aware of them.”