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Dark money groups associated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have injected nearly $20 million in hidden donor cash into the midterm elections, federal records show.
The election cash has gone to the Senate Majority and House Majority PACs, which are tied to Schumer and Pelosi. The PACs bankroll Senate and House Democrats, many of whom rail against dark money’s political influence.
Majority Forward, a nonprofit that does not identify its donors on tax forms, has poured nearly $15 million into the midterm elections up to the end of March, Federal Election Commission records show.
SCHUMER-ALIGNED DARK MONEY GROUP HAULS IN RECORDS $92 MILLION FROM HIDDEN DONORS
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES – 2021/08/13: Senator Schumer speaks during the presentation. Senator Chuck Schumer, elected officials honor members of 369th Regiment, The Harlem Hellfighters and Harlem Armory. Senator Schumer announced Congressional Gold Medal awarded to Harlem Hellfighters and presented The Legion of Merit Award from the US Senate to Command Sergeant Major Andrew Lampkins. Schumer was joined by elected officials, U.S. Representatives Tom Suozzi and Adriano Espaillat, former U.S. Representative Charles Rangel, NYS Senator Brian Benjamin, NYS Assembly members Inez Dickens and Al Taylor, as well as family members of the Harlem Hellfighters.
((Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images))
The Senate Majority PAC took in all of Majority Forward’s cash for the midterms, making the nonprofit its largest donor so far this cycle. J.B Poersch, a long-time Schumer ally, is president of both Majority Forward and the PAC. Both groups share office space and personnel.
“Let’s be clear: corporate Republicans are the only ones standing in the way of increasing transparency and making progress on campaign finance reform,” a Majority Forward spokesperson told Fox News.
“We look forward to the day when Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans stop blocking these badly needed reforms but until then, we will continue to play by the rules of the current system and level the playing field for Democrats in the face of enormous corporate special interest spending on the other side,” the spokesperson said.
Majority Forward’s midterm funding follows the $60 million the group had injected into the 2020 elections to help Democrats regain the Senate majority. It has now pushed $75 million into elections over the two cycles – a drastic increase over the $5.5 million it had injected for the 2016 and 2018 elections combined.
The Schumer-affiliated nonprofit has funneled the anonymous cash into his PAC as he regularly criticizes dark money, which he says “corrupted our politics.” Schumer has also pushed conservative judicial groups to disclose their funders, as he and other Democrats have benefited from several dark money judicial groups of their own.
Majority Forward’s skyrocketing election funding was made possible due to a banner fundraising haul from its anonymous donors. The nonprofit, which primarily works on Democratic voter engagement efforts, raked in a record $92 million in contributions in 2020, Fox News previously reported.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., conducts a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center to introduce members of the select committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the Capitol on Thursday, July 1, 2021.
(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, House Majority Forward, a nonprofit that also does not identify its donors, has kicked $2.5 million over to its counterpart House Majority PAC. The nonprofit has funneled $10 million into elections since its inception in 2019.
Like Schumer, Pelosi often goes off against dark money.
House Majority Forward’s tax forms show that the group collected $29.7 million from undisclosed contributors in 2020, a $21.5 million increase in secret cash over its founding year.
House Majority Forward did not respond to a Fox News Digital Inquiry.
Majority Forward and House Majority Forward have now pushed $85 million into political committees over the past three years.
Despite Democrats’ public opposition to dark money, they have outpaced Republicans in its usage over the past several years.
DEMOCRATS’ HR1 ELECTION BILL BOOSTED BY LIBERAL DARK MONEY GROUP FINANCED BY FOREIGN NATIONAL
President Biden walks with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., left, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., right, as he arrives at the U.S. Capitol to mark one year since the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol by supporters loyal to then-President Donald Trump, Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022, in Washington.
(Stefani Reynolds/Pool via AP)
The New York Times reported that 15 of the most active Democratic dark money nonprofits spent $1.5 billion in 2020. By comparison, 15 of the most active Republican nonprofits spent around $900 million.
One liberal dark money network, managed by Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm Arabella Advisors, raised an eye-popping $1.6 billion in anonymous cash in 2020, Fox News previously reported. It pushed $896 million in funds to liberal groups that year.
