My latest investigation for Forbes charts the rise of Missouri MAGA megadonor Robert Low, owner of Kentucky Derby favorite Renegade and founder of trucking giant Prime. Low's life story is an American classic. An Ozark farm boy who dropped out of college in 1970 to drive a long hauler, he built a 300-truck outfit that got crushed by rising rates in 1980. Then in 1983 he was charged with criminal assault in Colorado after he stabbed his friend/driver with an 8-inch hunting knife, nearly killing him, before he got acquitted on a temporary insanity plea that was later overruled by Colorado's Supreme Court. Undeterred, Low reinvented his struggling trucking company by embracing Reagan-era deregulation and pushing it to its limit. Unlike most mega-carriers, 90% of Prime's truckers are independent contractors, despite hauling loads organized by Prime. The model has been challenged in federal court, but largely survived in tact. The business has been extraordinarily profitable for Low, who lives in a 70,000-square-foot custom-built mansion on a 300-acre property, just down the road from his elite horse breeding operation. Read about Low's wild life story exclusively at Forbes https://lnkd.in/egw4CuRm
