Key Points
- Liberal dark money group the Sixteen Thirty Fund spent more than $400M on the 2020 election.
- They funded everything from Super PACs, to voter groups, to attack ads – they even got involved in progressive ballot measures.
- George Soros and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar are known donors.
It took a whole lot of progressive dark money to send Donald J. Trump packing, shift the tectonic plates of power in the senate, and put Joseph R. Biden in the Oval Office. A whole lot.
Democrats can never-again accuse Republicans of being the party of “big-money donors.” That talking point is dead – the Sixteen Thirty Fund has made sure of it.
According to a new report from Politico, the liberal dark-money group known as the Sixteen Thirty Fund spent a jaw-dropping $410 million dollars on the 2020 election; much of it to influence voter turnout; much of it, not surprisingly, in battleground states.
“[Its] multi-million dollar grants single-handedly powered some…organizations on the left, and incubated other groups, as a ‘fiscal sponsor,’ that fought against Trump’s Supreme Court nominees,” Politico reports. “[They also] backed liberal ballot measures and policy proposals in different states and organized opposition to Republican tax and health care policies.”
Talk about money in politics – there’s nothing they didn’t touch.
“Altogether this is absolutely one of the largest fundraising machines I have ever come across,” said Robert Maguire, an expert in political nonprofits. “I am really struggling to think of any other group, especially recently, that could rival it.”
It’s a behemoth; one that turned the tides of an election with the opening of a checkbook.
In 2020, Sixteen Thirty dropped $129 million dollars on America Votes, a liberal voter registration group in charge of ramping up Democratic turnout. According to Politico they, “helped progressives…provide new and safe opportunities for voting during a deadly pandemic” by supporting the group’s “national efforts to expand access to vote by mail and increase voter turnout in communities of color and among traditionally disenfranchised people.”
Now, many of those pandemic policies may become permanent – a boon for Democratic turnout. And who are the faces who funded these massive progressive efforts? Turns out, Sixteen Thirty is an All-Star team of liberal mega donors.
Tech billionaire and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar donated $45 million to the Sixteen Thirty-funded Civic Action Fund, which focuses on boosting turnout in battleground states. Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss donated $145 million in recent years for “non-electoral” purposes. And, of course, it isn’t a liberal party without George Soros, who gave $17 million.
Sixteen Thirty was also involved directly in progressive ballot measures like marijuana legalization in Montana and paid leave in Colorado. And millions were spent on ads attacking then-President Trump and vulnerable Republicans all over the country.
Again, nothing they didn’t touch.
Next election cycle, don’t be surprised when Democrats ratchet down the big donor attacks.
