A new review of financial documents shows Democrats are pouring more money than ever into 2024 political campaigns, especially in close races.
Since 2018, that amount has steadily increased in comparison to Republican spending. By 2020, the parts of the country that supported Joe Biden for president constituted 71 percent of the country’s GDP.
Much of the “dark money” — including illegal foreign contributions — cannot be identified since it is often funneled through corporations or 501(c)4 nonprofits that are not required to identify their donors.
Although 28 states passed laws banning so-called “Zuckerbucks”— enormous contributions from third-party donors like Meta/Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan to largely Democratic election officials — the tech mogul is expected to find ways around those laws, contributing instead to operatives to accomplish similar activities.
In 2020, the Zuckerbergs contributed $419 million to election officials, the recipient counties of which went to Democrats versus Republican officials at a nearly-perfect rate of 23 out of 25.
Although it is illegal for foreigners to contribute to U.S. elections, it’s no secret that it is happening. Jim Dornan, a cousin of former U.S. Representative Bob Dornan from California who works as a Republican political consultant in Washington D.C., told The Arizona Sun Times that Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran are funneling money into U.S. elections. They create “shell” American companies and launder the money through them. Although illegal, the money cannot be traced. The only way some of it has been discovered is through litigation, Dornan said.
He said Democrats are also focusing this year on meddling in Republican primaries, propping up MAGA candidates they believe will be weaker against the Democratic candidate in the general election. He cited the U.S. Senate race in Montana, where Democrats are pushing businessman Tim Sheehy, preferring to face him instead of Matt Rosendale, who is currently serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep Rosendale (R-MT-02) recently dropped out of the race.
Brian Boyle, a Federalist Society member and general counsel for American Promise (AP), an organization that is seeking a constitutional amendment to give states the power to regulate money that cannot be traced, known as “dark money” by progressives, told The Sun Times that after the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in the 2010 case Citizens United v. FEC allowing corporations to contribute money to political campaigns, at first Republicans benefited more than Democrats.
However, he said there was a striking transition from 2018 on. In 2018, $83 million in dark money went to Democrats, while $74 million went to Republicans. In 2020, $445 million in dark money went to Democrats, while $185 million went to Republicans. In 2022, $316 million in dark money went to Democrats, while $263 million went to Republicans.
Boyle believes the problem can be resolved by federalism, which would mean leaving the regulation of dark money up to the states, not judges. “The judiciary shouldn’t be in the business of micromanaging tough policy decisions,” he said.
Boyle pointed to the swing state Wisconsin, where Democrats are getting much of their funding from out-of-state money. The Washington Examiner reported on Monday, “Nearly 40% of the Wisconsin Democrats’ funding in 2024 has come from one man: Reid Hoffman, the founder of the social media site LinkedIn.” Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Executive Director Matt Rothschild told Wisconsin Public Radio, “Every time there’s a race in Wisconsin, it seems a new record for outside spending is broken, and it’s just the sky’s the limit.” Only three percent of Wisconsin Democrats’ funding comes from within the state.
AP started out as a progressive group in 2012, but the alarm about Democrats benefiting more from dark money than Republicans caused the GOP to join the organization, which is now bipartisan and has numerous conservatives on its board and staff. AP said it believes Citizens United was an encroachment on the 10th Amendment, and would instead leave the regulation of undisclosed money up to the states.
Former New Hampshire State Senator Jim Rubens, who serves on the board of AP, told The Sun Times that the organization conducted polling in seven states, including Republican-majority states like Wyoming, and found that over two-thirds of Republicans back the amendment.
Rubens was interviewed by Real America’s Voice in February. He pointed out that while Democrats claim to be against dark money, they have mastered profiting from it the most. Rubens said there is now a “structural bias in favor of Democrats.” Host Steve Gruber praised AP’s proposed constitutional amendment and said it seemed “backwards” that blue states are supporting it instead of red states.
Rubens told The Sun Times that one person like Zuckerberg should not be able to come into a state and completely dictate their elections because they can contribute more than the in-state opposition. The amendment would allow states to ban out-of-state contributions.
Another questionable area Rubens pointed to was the thousands of contributions funneled through ActBlue from people who either had no employer listed or were retired. While almost 50 percent of ActBlue’s contributions came from those types of people, the equivalent organization on the right, WinRed, brought in only 2.6 percent of that kind of contributions, he said. The Sun Times reported on those types of contributions, nicknamed “smurfing,” an illegal practice involving the creation of false accounts in order to advance an agenda.
The Capital Research Center (CRC), which investigates election corruption, investigated left-wing billionaire George Soros’s contributions to law enforcement-related races around the country. CRC said Soros started funding left-wing district attorneys in 2016 and “has generously supported over 20 individual candidates, many of whom won their elections and remain in office today.”
CRC credited $1.1 million from Soros as the reason Alvin Bragg was elected Manhattan District Attorney in 2022. Bragg is now prosecuting former President Donald Trump. “After Bragg released a memo stating that his office would not be seeking prison sentences for crimes such as armed robbery, drug dealing, and burglary, more than nine prosecutors in Manhattan quit,” the article observed.
Soros is also going after moderate Democratic district attorneys. In 2022, he contributed $300,000 to help left-wing candidate Jacqueline Sartoris defeat incumbent Jonathan Sahrbeck in the Democratic primary for Cumberland County District Attorney in Maine.
Soros poured $2.3 million into the 2016 Maricopa County Sheriff’s race, which is widely considered the reason little-known Democrat Paul Penzone defeated longtime popular Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Over the last year in Texas, Soros contributed at least $3 million to five left-wing groups. He was the sole contributor to Texas Majority PAC, providing $2.5 million.
In Maine, a ballot measure banning foreign contributions in state elections passed last fall with 86 percent support. It aimed to stop Canadian power companies from meddling in the state’s elections. However, it has been placed on hold while a judge considers whether it violates Citizens United.
Axios reports that Democrats are outraising Republicans this cycle in congressional races, especially in highly competitive House races. Democratic incumbents, nominees, and frontrunners in those races raised an average of $890,000 in the first three months of this year, compared to Republican incumbents and candidates during that period, who raised an average of just over $550,000. The Trump campaign is handicapped due to the immense amounts of money needed for Trump’s legal defense and fending off primary opponents.
Rubens told The Sun Times that the Founding Fathers were “most afraid of concentrated power; they did not anticipate this situation where a few people control the flow of money” and can target “swing races.” He said, “First flows corruption, then flows tyranny.”
Rubens said American voters are so frustrated with Congress that they increasingly favor constitutional amendments. He said supermajorities of voters — including two-thirds of Democrats — now support multiple constitutional amendments on campaign money, debt limits, and term limits. “The public is ready to restore federalism,” he said. “It simply gives the states the power to regulate.”
He said, “The Right doesn’t see [Citizens United] as an advantage any more.”
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to rachel.r.alexander@gmail.com.
Photo “Voting Sign” by Lorie Shaull. CC BY-SA 2.0.
