U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) is rejecting the idea that the Club for Growth, the national conservative group increasingly involved in Alabama politics, is out-of-state “dark money.”

Political columnist Steve Flowers has hung that label on the Club in recent months.

In a column last week, Flowers called the group a “quiet, dark money, right-wing organization” bankrolled by millionaires and billionaires, and wrote that most of the more than $30 million Moore raised and spent in the Republican primary came from the Club and PACs around it.

Flowers made a similar case in February, when he predicted the Club’s endorsement, paired with President Donald Trump’s, would make Moore the favorite for the seat U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) is vacating to become governor.

Moore, who won the GOP runoff in June, was asked Wednesday on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program” whether he considers the Club out-of-state dark money.

“No,” Moore said. “Honestly, Club for Growth gets conservative donors from all over the country, and some of that money actually comes from within our state. And so, they just really put together a group organization that we desperately needed to counter big government, big spending.”

“When you look at their agenda for America, it is closed borders, low taxes, less big government, more freedom and liberty,” he said. “The fact that they would line up behind me and other candidates, you know, it’s interesting. It lines up pretty closely with most people across the state of Alabama, and so they come in and help us.”

Moore said the Club is a counter ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising machine that a House Republican report found had logged dozens of “significant fraud campaigns” and hundreds of donations from foreign IP addresses on prepaid cards in a single 30-day window of the 2024 campaign.

“You got ActBlue putting millions of dollars into these leftist campaigns with donations from who knows where and what all, and mostly small dollar donors,” he said. “We needed a group, and Club has been one of those folks.”

Moore said the Club has never called him to ask for his vote on any measure before Congress.

“I had a fellow say a few months ago, ‘Man, is Club just supporting you? Do they call you and tell you how to vote?’” Moore said. “They’ve never called me and asked me how to vote or told me how to vote. They endorse, or they will get behind certain pieces of legislation, but so will lots of groups, whether it’s pro-life groups or whatever.”

“That’s not dark money,” he said. “That’s conservative donors from around the country getting involved in politics to offset what ActBlue has been doing for the left for years.”

The Club’s Alabama footprint this cycle runs well past Moore.

Club for Growth PAC endorsed him in January, the same day President Trump did, and by the time Moore finished first in the May 19 primary, the group’s super PAC arm, Club for Growth Action, and its affiliated Alabama Freedom Fund had put more than $2.5 million into the race, including a $1.25 million ad buy in March.

The relationship goes back to 2020, when the Club endorsed Moore in his first congressional runoff while spending against then-U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne and for Tuberville in that cycle’s Senate race.

It backed Moore again in 2024 when redistricting put him in a primary against fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl.

The Club gives Moore a 97% lifetime rating and says he has won its Defender of Economic Freedom Award every year he has served.

Down the ballot, Club for Growth Action gave $315,000 check to John Wahl days after the then-ALGOP chairman entered the lieutenant governor’s race with Trump’s endorsement.

Wahl beat Secretary of State Wes Allen 57-43 in the June runoff.

The Club also endorsed Katherine Robertson for Alabama Attorney General in May. Robertson beat former Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell 55-45 in the runoff.

The group says candidates it endorsed won 79% of their races in 2024.

Asked whether the Club has a formal Alabama wing, Moore said he was not aware of one, but that the group has Alabama donors and that one of its national candidate recruiters is an Alabamian, though he was not sure she still works for the Club.

“They’re very powerful, so there are people who like say, ‘Well, that’s dark money,’” Moore said. “No, it’s not, man. It’s money who believes in conservative freedom, liberty, small government leadership.”

“Dark money is usually money you wish you got for your campaign, and when it’s spent by the other guy, you’re like, ‘Oh, it’s dark money,’” Moore added.

“No, it’s not. It’s for conservative values, and so that’s very often how some of the media describes them. But in reality, they fight against a lot of the groups that are for big government, more control, and we need that.”

“Never one time in the history of six years in Washington, D.C., have they ever called me and told me or recommended how to,” Moore said.

“They find candidates they like. They get behind them.”

Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.