Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Congressional caucuses Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Miscellaneous Other Rebekah Mercer (born December 6, 1973) is an American heiress and Republican political donor,[2][3] and director of the Mercer Family Foundation.
[2][4][5][6][7][8] Her father, billionaire Robert Mercer, said in November 2017 that he had sold his stake in the news site Breitbart to his daughters.
In 2006, Mercer and her sisters purchased Ruby et Violette, a New York City company[14] that sells cookies and brownies online.
She spoke to a group of wealthy conservative donors at the University Club of New York about what the Republican Party had done wrong in canvassing and technology operations during the election.
Mercer supported Jeff Sessions for U.S. Attorney General and against Mitt Romney, who Trump was considering for U.S. Secretary of State.
[5] In June 2016, Mercer created the Defeat Crooked Hillary PAC, and ran the organization's daily operations.
[26] People close to the transition said she opposed Corey Lewandowski as RNC chair, noting that Lewandowski had reportedly resisted paying for services from Cambridge Analytica, a data firm funded by the Mercers early in the campaign, though a close associate of Mercer's denied the stories.
Paul Manafort, Kellyanne Conway's predecessor as campaign director, who was also said to be critical of Cambridge Analytica, had worked for Ted Cruz and was financially backed by the Mercers.
[9] Mercer helped create the film Clinton Cash with Bannon, a top political adviser to Trump at the time.
[28][29] In late 2017, Bannon told several conservative donors that Mercer had pledged her financial support if he decided to run for president in 2020 against Trump.
[37] As of early February 2021, Mercer holds the majority shares and, The Washington Post reported "increasingly pulls the strings" at Parler, controlling two-thirds of its board, and appointing other directors.
[38] Tax records indicate that the Mercer family donated millions of dollars to organizations that reject the scientific consensus regarding climate change.
[41] The protest followed the release of a letter from over 200 academics and scientists calling for the board to "end ties to anti-science propagandists and funders of climate science misinformation.
"[39] In March 2018, a group called the "Clean Money Project" mounted a spoof campaign aimed at highlighting Mercer's positions on climate change and pressuring the museum to sever ties with her.