A Washington, D.C., super-PAC is attacking U.S. Senate candidate Sam Mead for a $27 donation Mead made in 2019 to then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
The attack ad surfaced Monday via an X.com post by Club For Growth president David McIntosh. The group calls itself the leading free-enterprise advocacy group in the nation and has endorsed U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, who’s running in a five-way race for the Republican nomination against Mead, Jimmy Skovgard, Jill Edwards and John Holtz.
Mead’s political credentials stand out in that field: he served as mayor of Kirby, is the nephew of former Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, and is great-grandson of former U.S. Sen. and Gov. Cliff Hansen.
Hageman’s credentials also stand out: she’s the incumbent and daughter of the late, longtime Republican state Rep. James Hageman.
The primary election is Aug. 18.
Did Donate $27
Club For Growth’s political arm, Club For Growth Action, is “responsible for the content of” the attack ad. It calls Mead “not the sharpest tool in the shed” and notes Mead gave money to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont who identifies as a Democratic Socialist.
The U.S. Federal Election Commission’s records show that in 2019 Mead gave Democratic-leaning fundraising platform ActBlue $27, earmarked for “Bernie 2020.”
Mead told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday interview that the donation pertained to Sanders’ unique ideas about health-care reform, which deviated from the “Obamacare” system Mead says has hurt Wyoming.
“I just have always been really concerned about problem-solving, and tactical solutions to things,” said Mead. “At the time, Bernie was the only one talking about health care and providing solutions that, in my mind, made some sense.”
Mead said that the attack on him by an out-of-state group for not walking “the party line” is just “more of the same” and detracts from the issues.
“We need to have the latitude to problem-solve. And I don’t think we can do that if someone’s just a partisan hack,” he said.
Seven years later, Mead said, his concerns are that the insurance pool is too small to build a competitive market, and that “bare minimum, we need to increase the insured pool and allow insurers to operate across state lines.”
Pushing Medicare For All
He said Hageman hasn’t introduced health-care solutions for Wyoming.
“People are feeling the pain of that every day,” he said.
Hageman’s spokesman did not immediately respond Tuesday to a late-day text message and voicemail request for comment.
Sanders in 2019 was pushing Medicare for all and, at the time, “that made some sense,” said Mead, adding that he was also a Republican then and has been a lifelong Republican.
The health-care issue hits close to home,, he said, adding that he and his wife had both had medical bills that would have bankrupted them if not for their “good health care.”
Mead continued: “I don’t think anyone thinks our current health-care system is fiscally efficient … We spend twice as much as other developed nations do on health care.”
The preventive care component of Sanders’ Medicare-for-all idea might have prevented later, more drastic costs, he added.
Mead said he wasn’t surprised by the ad because campaigns can get fierce.
“It’s just more out-of-state money going toward Harriet,” he said.
Ultimately Joe Biden won the Democratic nomination, then won the presidency in 2020 over then-President Donald Trump.
What About Trump?
Mead has campaigned on keeping public lands public, and has voiced disappointment in Hageman for backing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is expected to add trillions to the national deficit.
“I’m disappointed she didn’t stand up for fiscal conservatism,” he said.
The attack ad calls this language into question, with the narrator saying, “But socialist Bernie did?”
The ad presents Mead’s comment as an attack on Trump.
Club For Growth Action attacked Trump in 2016, however, with an ad calling Trump’s record “very liberal” and saying “he’s really just playing us.”
The group's communications director Will Mitola sent an email statement in response to Cowboy State Daily's request for comment, which touted Hageman and didn't expound on the Trump video.
“Harriet Hageman is a proven conservative champion who has delivered for Wyoming in Congress and stood with President Trump to prevent the largest tax increase in history,” said Club for Growth Action President David McIntosh in the statement. “Meanwhile, Sam Mead donated to Bernie Sanders’ campaign and opposed policies that saved money for voters in the Cowboy State. That Harriott (sic) Hageman is the right choice for Senate couldn’t be more clear.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
