LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman wants more Democrats elected to Congress this fall, but first he has to beat some Democrats this summer.
The billionaire is spending millions on campaigns against what his advisers see as extreme, far-left Democrats in the hope of getting more moderate Democrats to take part in the general election. election in November, where the party will have a better chance of defeating Republicans and maintaining control of Congress.
Hoffman donated more than $4 million to the 2022 midterm election cycle, including nearly $2 million to the PAC Mainstream Democratic Party and the PAC Majority Democratic Party, combined. Political action committees have either targeted what Hoffman’s political strategist calls “extremist” candidates or backed their opponents to run in House races.
“Our political philanthropy is focused on undermining the political power of the anti-American Trump-MAGA movement,” said Dmitri Mehlhorn, Hoffman’s political adviser. “Extreme leftist groups, such as the Justice Democrats, help the MAGA movement by attacking center-left Democrats who can win general elections.”
Hoffman is advocating for PACs that oppose candidates affiliated with the Justice Democrats, a political action committee that favors members of the Radical Congressional Caucus. The caucus was a group of some of the most outspoken and liberal Democrats in the House, including Rep. Maxine Waters of California and Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jerrold Nadler.
“Given the damage that Justice Democrats and their allies have done to the Democratic brand, we have had to put up a modest amount of capital to fight back,” Mehlhorn said. declined to comment further on Hoffman’s next donation.
During a recent meeting with some of the nation’s wealthiest financiers, Hoffman warned that if Republican candidates with deep loyalty to former President Donald Trump win the midterm elections, for the 2022 period, they can “put Trump in 2024 regardless of the number of votes”. Puck News and Washington Post. He called the GOP candidates “MAGA leaders.”
Hoffman has been a major political donor for many years, including during the 2020 election when he positive raise money for the president Joe Biden’s campaigned and donated more than $2 million to super PACs supporting his candidacy for the White House. Super PACs, like the Orthodox Democrats, can spend and raise unlimited amounts of money to take on their opponents. Hoffman and the Orthodox Democratic Party PAC did not return requests for comment.
He organized a virtual fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee last year, with tickets walking as high as $875,000. Biden thanked Hoffman for his “generous support” of the event, according to the President’s White House transcript.
Federal Election Commission records show Hoffman contributed $500,000 this election cycle to the Orthodox Democratic Party PAC, which is campaigning against liberal Democrats against those moderate in their primaries. The donation, sent to the PAC in February, is one of the top donations to the outside group to date. It raised just over $2.6 million in the 2022 election cycle and spent roughly the same in the Democratic primaries, according to FEC filings.
House Majority PAC CEO Abby Curran Horrell praised Hoffman and said they were looking forward to working with him again.
“The PAC majority is grateful to Reid Hoffman for his support of our shared goals of winning competitive House races, securing a Democratic Majority in the House, and preserving defend our democracy – and we look forward to continuing to work together,” Horrell said in a statement. CNBC. The House Majority PAC is a so-called mixed PAC, which can contribute to campaigns and act as a super PAC at the same time.
According to a Democratic political strategist, Hoffman is part of a growing group of Democratic tech executives who favor more moderate candidates. Those donors believe the more liberal Democrats cannot win a county general election and will only reduce the party’s chances of controlling Congress, said the strategist, who does not advise Hoffman but has other major donors as clients in the tech sector.
“People like Reid are having the reaction ‘Democrats are useless. They’re killing these moderates. What are the alternatives? You can’t come to the Republican Party because they have people who are not. absolutely unprofitable,'” the adviser said.
David Tamasi, a veteran lobbyist and Republican fundraiser, said in an interview that the money Hoffman spent on taking on Trump-aligned Republicans may not be enough. to prevent them from being elected in November, with many using the nascent economy as part of their campaign message.
“You have to be very strategic and have a real understanding of the dynamics of the race so that the money you’re putting in can add up and not get canceled because five dollars a gallon of gas is communicated continuously through the media. Earned media will overwhelm whatever you put in,” says Tamasi.
The Justice Democrats were formed after the 2016 election by alumni and allies of Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. The sole purpose is to support progressive Democratic Party candidates. The group supported members of the so-called “Special Squad,” which included Delegates Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, and Cori Bush.
All of these lawmakers are members of the Radical Caucus of Congress. Orthodox Democratic Party sponsored by Hoffman, PAC taken over Jessica Cisneros and Nina Turner, an ally of Sanders, who lost the primary for a House seat. Both candidates are supported by the Justice Democratic Party. Records show that the Orthodox Democratic Party PAC spent more than $150,000 against Turner.
Mehlhorn, an adviser to Hoffman, said the Orthodox Democrat PAC is among a number of groups he sees as a counterweight to Democrats and Republicans he describes as “extremists.”
“The Mainstream Democratic Party Project is one of a number of initiatives designed to help the Democratic Party take center stage and win the election against the extremists of the Democratic Party,” he said. in primaries and Republican extremists in general elections. The Orthodox Democratic Party PAC is associated with Defend the Majority for Israel, a pro-Israel advocacy group that runs a political action committee that spent more than $1 million against Sanders in the 2020 election. records show.
However, according to people familiar with the matter, Hoffman’s six-figure donation to the Orthodox Democratic Party PAC and his other contributions to date are just the beginning for long-term political donors. years in this cycle, with more money going to such groups in the coming months. These people declined to be named to speak freely about private discussions.
So far, outside groups backed by Hoffman have shown mixed results.
Data from OpenSecrets shows that the Orthodox Democratic Party PAC spent more than $750,000 donate Representing Henry Cuellar, D-Texas in the build-up of his main passage against Cisneros. Cuellar said that he is a “professional life” Democratic Party and is only legislator in his party, who voted against a House bill last year that would codify abortion rights protections.
Cisneros admit to Cuellar last week after calling for a recount. According to NBC News, the race was decided by less than 300 votes.
Fellow House moderate representative, Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., received more than $580,000 from the PAC in favor of him while his opponent, Jamie McLeod-Skinner, received just under $200,000 to oppose. back in the main match. Schrader, person endorsed by Biden, just conceded to McLeod-Skinner.
House Majority PAC spent nearly $1 million to support Carrick Flynn in a preliminary meeting of the Oregon House of Representatives. Flynn admit in the race for Oregon Representative Andrea Salinas, who was backing by Progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
Cook Politics Report shows races for Cuellar County of Texas and District 5 of Oregon where McLeod-Skinner Win is bounce. Salinas’ targeted Oregon district was marked by Cook Politics as “likely a Democrat” and is not expected to be competitive.
In a statement to CNBC, a spokesman for the Justice Democrats, Waleed Shahid, brushed off Hoffman for funding the anti-Cisneros group, and explained that their progressive PAC was working to “unalign the party” with the base of the working class.”
“Billionaire Reid Hoffman sponsoring a radical pro-NRA, anti-union, and anti-selection Democrat in Henry Cuellar’s campaign as ‘Orthodox Democrat’ is disgraceful.” Shahid said in an email. “If Democrats supported principals like Jamaal Bowman, nurses like Cori Bush, bartenders like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or human rights lawyers like Jessica Cisneros, then the Justice Democrats wouldn’t have to exist. .”
Separately, Hoffman had preliminary conversations with data and technology professionals when they presented him with the concept of funding another data startup, with the idea that this kind of venture could help Democrats with voter registration and overall analysis in the upcoming election, according to people familiar with the matter.
These people explained that Hoffman still hasn’t agreed to the pitch after he invested nearly $20 million in the data based nonprofit called Alloy during the 2020 election cycle, then Turn off after the Democratic National Committee decision against employment with them.
DNC announced in July that it has invest 25 million dollars into new tools to help with voter registration for midterms, with some of the funds going to what the committee describes as “the largest tech team in the history of the DNC.”
A DNC spokesperson did not return a request for comment.
