Meet the Republican spending $175 million to change the GOP's mind on climate change

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last updated 9 June 2015

Jay Faison, a Republican entrepreneur, is spending millions of dollars of his own money to convince his party to address climate change.

Faison, a North Carolina businessman, wants Republicans to stop debating the science of climate change and to instead prioritize finding solutions for it, such as clean energy. Faison recently founded the ClearPath Foundation, which he hopes will convince the GOP to care about climate change. In a recent interview with Politico, Faison explains why he started the foundation:

I always felt a little alone out there as a Republican, and so I started ClearPath to create a dialogue around this in a way that hadn't been done before and sort of be part of the solution. We think that there are real Republican solutions to the problem... There's a lot of center-right Republicans that feel like they don't have a voice in this issue, and surveys would say they're eager to share this information to bring other people along with them. Even in small percentages, that's in the millions. [Politico]

Faison's efforts with ClearPath include a $165 million social media and online advertising campaign, as well as a separate $10 million political advocacy program. ClearPath's campaign plans include spending $40 million in 2016, as Faison hopes to persuade conservative candidates to prioritize climate change ahead of the election.