"Tom Jones, the A.A.F.’s founder and executive director, is a longtime Beltway operative specializing in opposition research... has worked for several of the most conservative Republicans to have served in the Senate, including Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin; Ted Cruz, of Texas; Jim DeMint, of South Carolina; and John Ensign, of Nevada, for whom Jones was briefly a legislative director. In 2016, Jones ran opposition-research effort for Cruz’s failed Presidential campaign,"