Ben Carson’s Super-PAC Is Still in It to Win It

Sure, he’s ending his campaign. But “the brilliant doctor generally has a plan.”

A cardboard cutout of Carson smiles down on the 2016 Committee booth at CPAC.Patrick Caldwell/Mother Jones

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Ben Carson’s presidential campaign may be nearing its end, but don’t tell his biggest fans, who are still out in force at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual confab just outside Washington, DC.

On Wednesday, Carson announced that he’d be skipping Thursday’s Republican debate and that he didn’t “see a political path forward in light of last evening’s Super Tuesday primary results.” He promised more news at his CPAC speech scheduled for Friday afternoon.

But in the basement exhibition hall at the Gaylord National Harbor Hotel, Beth Trivett was still handing out Ben Carson 2016 car decals and “I Like Ben” buttons. Trivett was manning the booth for the 2016 Committee, the main super-PAC backing Carson’s campaign. “The brilliant doctor generally has a plan,” Trivett told me when I asked if it was dispiriting to be campaigning for Carson right before he likely ends his presidential run.

Still, while upbeat about Carson in general, Trivett didn’t have nice things to say about the shape the presidential race had taken this year. “We all saw the media and parties literally lynch this brilliant man,” she said, pointing over her shoulder to a cardboard cutout of Carson.

There’s already been some talk that Carson could try his hand at another political run—perhaps for Marco Rubio’s Senate seat in Florida. But Trivett, who was working with the group before Carson even entered the race, wasn’t sold on that idea. “We drafted him specifically to be the president,” Trivett said. “This was for POTUS. POTUS is still my preference.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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