The political operative behind the nonprofit that just began attacking Ted Cruz in Iowa is a Marco Rubio backer who served as a co-host of a fundraiser for the Florida senator last week.

Sean Noble is the founder of American Encore, a 501(c)4 nonprofit, which is paying $200,000 to air an ad in Des Moines that accuses Cruz of voting to “weaken national security” and urges him to “stop leading from behind.” Noble said that while he personally is backing Rubio — he served as a co-host of scotch and cigars fundraiser in Arizona last week — his group is not.

American Encore, Noble explained, is instead dedicated to the nomination of a Republican candidate who can win the general election. “There is probably more than one in that regard,” Noble said. "We just don’t think that Cruz is one of them.”

The group previously aired a radio ad in Iowa hitting Rand Paul on a different topic this spring. 

The new anti-Cruz ad hits the Texas senator for his support of the USA Freedom Act, which restricted the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of phone metadata. The spot splices together news coverage and footage from Paris last week, an image of a bomb exploding in a street and accusations that Cruz voted to “weaken America’s ability to identify and hunt down terrorists.” 

"He was against intelligence gathering measures when it seemed it like it was convenient for him and his competition was Rand Paul,” Noble said of Cruz. "Now that the landscape has changed he is changing his tune."

Rubio has attacked Cruz for the same vote.

"I see them as indistinguishable,” Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler said of the Rubio campaign and the nonprofit. "This is the establishment in full panic mode. They couldn't get their guy Jeb Bush so they settled on his protégé Marco Rubio.”

Noble said the reasoning behind the ad was the GOP experience in 2012 "when we had people who were not electable doing damage” to Mitt Romney, the eventual nominee. "Newt Gingrich was part of the reason Mitt Romney lost the general election and I don’t want that to happen again,” he said.

As for the Rubio fundraiser, Noble said he didn’t speak with Rubio as it was “insanely packed” and he let “people in Arizona who’ve never met” Rubio say hello.