Party operatives steering millions in ‘dark money’ to 2020 election ads

More than $116 million in political spending and 2020 contributions can be traced back to “dark money” groups aligned with Democratic or Republican party leadership.

These political party-aligned dark money groups have largely skirted the Federal Election Commission’s disclosure rules by pouring millions of dollars into digital advertising, TV ads framed as issue advocacy and funneling money through closely tied super PACs effectively operating as “shadow parties” with close ties to political party leadership on both sides of the aisle.

Senate Democrats’ Majority Forward and Republicans’ One Nation have collectively spent around $43 million on political advertising in the 2020 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets’ analysis of TV and digital ad data based on new research in partnership with the Wesleyan Media Project. 

Yet those two groups have yet to disclose even a dime of that ad spending to the FEC thanks to loopholes in federal campaign finance law’s disclosure rules.

Majority Forward raised roughly $75 million from its inception in the leadup to the 2016 election through May 2019 and spent around $50 million in that time, an analysis of new financial records obtained by OpenSecrets reveals.

Over the course of its first two election cycles in operation, Majority Forward reported over $50 million in independent expenditures and nearly $5.6 million in electioneering communications to the FEC. It gave nearly $8 million more in contributions to super PACs or hybrid PACs. Altogether, Majority Forward’s political contributions and spending reported to the FEC account for more than 83 percent of the revenue publicly discosed to the Internal Revenue Service or state-level agencies from its inception in 2015 through the end of the 2018 election cycle. By January 2019, the dark money group had already started spending hundreds of thousands of dollars more on ads targeting 2020 elections. 

Tax-exempt nonprofits operating under U.S. tax code section 501(c)(4), like Majority Forward, are not supposed to have political activities as their primary purpose. The rule of thumb is generally that less than half of a groups’ activities are allowed to be political. But IRS guidance is fraught with loopholes and the agency has not established any rules governing how much political spending is too much.

Majority Forward poured more than $25 million into TV and digital ads mentioning candidates since the start of 2020, according to new research by the Wesleyan Media Project in partnership with OpenSecrets. Altogether, Majority Forward has put nearly $36 million into political ads and groups like super PACs spending on 2020 elections. But it has yet to disclose any spending to the FEC in the 2020 election cycle. 

Despite reporting more spending than any other dark money group in the 2018 election cycle and pouring even more money into digital ads not disclosed to the FEC, Majority Forward claims it did not receive any contributions for political purposes and refused to disclose its donors. 

Because Majority Forward’s 2020 ads are framed as issue advocacy, painting a favorable or disfavorable picture of candidates without explicitly advocating for their election or defeat, the spending is not required to be disclosed to FEC outside of a brief 30 or 60 day window before Election Day.

A new Democratic party-aligned 501(c)(4) nonprofit called Duty and Honor spent around $2.9 million on TV ads over the past month, according to Wesleyan’s research in partnership with OpenSecrets. The dark money group reported spending around $500,000 on West Virginia’s 2018 Senate race. The group has yet to report 2020 spending since its political ads are couched as issue advocacy. 

But TV station political ad records filed with the Federal Communications Commission suggest that the focus of the ads is on contested U.S. Senate races in Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina, Maine and Montana — confirming the dark money group’s announced launch of an ad campaign first reported by NBC News. The new dark money group started to ramp up digital ad campaigns on Google and Facebook as well. 

On Monday, Duty and Honor launched another $500,000 TV ad campaign boosting Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ga.), according to Politico. Like most of its other advertising, the new ad avoids explicitly calling for the Alabama Senator’s re-election, instead urging viewers to “tell Doug Jones to keep fighting.”

New tax records obtained by OpenSecrets reveal Duty and Honor is closely tied to Senate Democrats’ main super PAC and dark money group, Senate Majority PAC and Majority Forward, sharing officers as well as other resources with the groups and listing them as “related” entities. 

Duty and Honor received at least $400,000 in seed money from Majority Forward in 2018. IRS rules do not require nonprofits to file tax records revealing details of their financial information until months after their fiscal year is over so whether Majority Forward continued funneling more money into Duty and Honor is unknown at this time. 

While Democrats have continued ramping up dark money operations after outspending their conservative counterparts for the first time in 2018 elections, Republican Party-aligned groups are continuing to churn millions of dollars from secret donors into 2020 elections as well. 

One Nation and an allied dark money group aligned with Senate Republican leadership, American Action Network, divulged plans on their respective websites for more than $105 million in political or “issue” advertising spending since the start of the 2020 election cycle.

At least $23.6 million of that dark money was used to bankroll TV spending on ads boosting Republicans in the House or Senate during the 2020 election cycle, according to Wesleyan’s research in partnership with OpenSecrets. Of that, $16.6 million went to One Nation’s TV ads boosting Republicans in 2020 Senate races, avoiding FEC disclosure with hackneyed phrases like “keep fighting” instead of explicitly calling for specific election outcomes.

Dark money groups aligned with congressional Republican leadership shelled out another $1.3 million for digital ads on Facebook and $1.5 million for Google advertising, according to OpenSecrets’ analysis of online ad data in partnership with Wesleyan. 

Democratic and Republican party-aligned dark money groups have spent around $4.2 million combined on Facebook and Google advertising during the 2020 election cycle. Taking into account digital ads paid for in partnership with other Democratic party-aligned groups such as  hybrid PAC Priorities USA Action’s affiliated dark money group, that number is much higher — topping $16.4 million.

On top of its direct ad spending, American Action Network funneled around $20 million to House Republicans’ Congressional Leadership Fund, accounting for nearly one-third of the super PAC’s total fundraising reported to date in the 2020 election.

Party-aligned super PACs have taken around $40 million from dark money groups with shared offices and operatives during the 2020 election cycle. This tactic of routing dark money through super PACs adds an extra layer of insulation between political spending and the ultimate financier behind the operation.

Super PACs and other outside groups are on track to take a record amount of money from opaque sources during the 2020 election cycle with at least $177 million from dark money groups or other secretive entities through the end of June. 

One Nation gave another $7.6 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, an allied super PAC tied to Senate Republicans and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). The dark money groups  share an office, operatives and other resources with the super PACs they fund.

Majority Forward funneled more than $10.6 million to Senate Majority PAC and like-minded political groups like pop-up super PAC Let’s Turn Colorado Blue during the 2020 election cycle, while House Majority Forward has given around $1.6 million to House Majority PAC. Like their equivalents on the right, Senate and House Democrats’ main dark money arms share an office, staff, and resources with the super PACs they fund.

Unlike House Republicans’ dark money operation and its Democratic counterpart in the Senate, nonprofit House Majority Forward reported around $1 million in spending to the FEC during the 2020 cycle on ads explicitly advocating for failed Democratic congressional candidate Dan McCready’s election in North Carolina. But political ad spending data shows House Majority Forward spent more than $2.2 million on digital and TV political ads during the 2020 election cycle.