Cruz Aide Leading New Political Action Committee

WASHINGTON — The campaign manager for Ted Cruz’s successful 2012 U.S. Senate bid won’t be working directly for the senator’s 2016 presidential campaign, but his new job means that he will still have an active role in supporting his former boss.

John Drogin, who joined Cruz's Senate office as state director early in the junior senator's first term, will now be the executive director of Make DC Listen, a new political action committee that endorsed Cruz's presidential bid on its first day in operation Thursday. Drogin left his Senate office post on Wednesday.  

“Our goal is to raise grassroots contributions for [Cruz’s] campaign so he has the resources to get his message out and win," Drogin said in a statement.

The PAC, which aims to back federal candidates who are cut from the same cloth as Cruz, is not a super PAC. Therefore, donations will be subject to federal limits.

Drogin, a former spokesman for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, was one of the earliest staffers to sign on with Cruz's 2012 campaign, when Cruz was mostly an afterthought in a multi-candidate race. 

A news release on Thursday morning described Make DC Listen as “a multi-candidate PAC [that] will help conservative candidates raise these funds from like-minded patriots across the country.”

“This PAC will empower the grassroots to turn our country around by donating directly to candidates who will fight for less government and more freedom,” Drogin added.

“Make DC Listen will start by supporting Ted Cruz for President because he's a proven conservative, has strong grassroots support, and will stand up to the Washington establishment,” said Drogin. “Nobody will do more to make DC listen than Ted Cruz.”

A handful of super PACs are supporting Cruz, and they say they raised a combined $31 million earlier this month.