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SOURCE: OpenSecrets.org, 2020-07-16
The Sixteen Thirty Fund, an expansive liberal "dark money" network that emerged as a key player in the 2018 midterms, is injecting millions of untraceable dollars into super PACs backing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
The influential nonprofit donated a total of $5.7 million to two pro-Biden groups, Unite the Country and American Bridge 21st Century, on June 30 2020, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Together those super PACs have spent $35 million backing Biden and attacking President Donald Trump on the airwaves. American Bridge recently launched a $25 million ad campaign in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania -- the key states to Trump's 2016 upset -- bashing Trump over his response to the devastating coronavirus pandemic.
Sixteen Thirty Fund made the donation through a recently formed joint fundraising committee called Victory 2020. These committees typically distribute large donations from wealthy individual donors to a number of campaigns and party committees. It's rare to see a joint fundraising committee raise cash for super PACs -- and fund them with dark money.
Organized as a 501(c)(4), Sixteen Thirty Fund is best known for bankrolling Demand Justice, an effort that opposed Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. The group hammered Republican senators with negative ads over the confirmation battle, then proceeded to target Republican candidates with "issue ads" ahead of the 2018 midterms under several different aliases. It also posed as news outlets in an attempt to influence voters. In total, the group spent $141 million supporting liberal and progressive causes in 2018.
Late last year [2019], the group aired issue ads pressuring Republican lawmakers to vote for Trump's impeachment. Recently, Sixteen Thirty Fund emerged as a major player in a Missouri ballot initiative to expand Medicaid. It also poured dark money into an effort to get a paid family leave measure on the November ballot in Colorado.
Sixteen Thirty Fund also poured nearly $6.8 million into LCV Victory Fund, a super PAC that spent $5.9 million attacking Trump this cycle over his administration's environmental policies.
Biden has pledged to crack down on dark money and coordination between campaigns and billionaire-backed super PACs if he is elected president. But Democrats have maintained throughout the Citizens United era that their willingness to implement stricter campaign finance laws will not stop them from abusing existing loopholes to win elections.
Sixteen Thirty Fund isn't the only dark money group boosting American Bridge, which raised $18 million from April through June 2020. The super PAC brought in $6.8 million worth of in-kind donations from its own 501(c)(4) arm that doesn't disclose its donors.
Biden's campaign signaled to donors in May 2020 that Priorities USA Action was its preferred outside group before partially walking back that statement. That super PAC -- Priorities USA Action -- which is also partly funded by its own dark money 501(c)(4) arm, has spent a whopping $34 million boosting Biden over Trump. Its most recent multi-million dollar TV and digital ad campaign aims to encourage Black and Latino voters in battleground states to vote by mail in November 2020.
It's becoming more common for dark money groups to steer money to super PACs rather than fund political ads themselves. Each of the top super PACs tied to House and Senate Democrats have received large donations from nonprofits that don't disclose their sources of funding. A mysterious super PAC that meddled in Colorado's Democratic Senate primary revealed this week that it was funded entirely by Majority Forward, a dark money group tied to Democratic leadership.
Trump has his own preferred super PAC, America First Action. It has also received some dark money help from its own closely tied 501(c)(4), America First Policies. The super PAC has spent nearly $16 million attacking Biden. It's planning a $23 million ad campaign attacking Biden in Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
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