Dem Senators Who Won Elections With Corporate PAC Money Now Pledging To Refuse It
Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan are proposing to ban corporate PACs, but they won elections after receiving money from one designed to funnel individual donations from many…
Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan are proposing to ban corporate PACs, but they won elections after receiving money from one designed to funnel individual donations from many corporate employees, campaign finance records show.
Democracy Engine Inc., PAC, gave more than $1.1 million to Kelly through his Senate campaign and PAC and more than $294,400 to Slotkin’s House campaign since 2020, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records. Slotkin’s House campaign returned $1,500 in donations, Kelly’s Senate campaign returned $6,951 and his own PAC, the Mark Kelly Victory Fund, returned none, Democracy Engine’s FEC filings show.
Entrepreneur and Democracy Engine CEO Jonathan Zucker formed his company and PAC to allow corporate donors to circumvent contribution limits that federal law imposes on business lobbies, Bloomberg Government reported in 2023. The PAC provides a way for corporate employees to give individually rather than through PACs explicitly created for their business, making the donations potentially less problematic on paper for politicians wary of corporate cash, the outlet reported.
“Democracy Engine is just a corporate PAC with extra steps,” Parker Thayer, who investigates campaign finance issues for Capital Research Center, told the DCNF.
“Senators Kelly and Slotkin don’t want to ban corporate political spending,” Thayer said. “They want to ban one specific method of corporate political spending because they know that loophole fundraising infrastructure like Democracy Engine would allow them to keep taking corporate funding while appearing to be anti-corporate crusaders.”
Slotkin, a former House member, and Kelly reintroduced a bill to ban corporate PACs on July 29, reiterating a stance they have promoted for years despite taking money from Democracy Engine. Those who have funded the two senators through the PAC include relatives of left-wing megadonor George Soros, whose family oversees multiple firms, FEC records show.
Slotkin’s congressional office told the DCNF that Democracy Engine is “not a corporate PAC,” though it has registered with the FEC as one. “Democracy Engine is an ActBlue-like conduit for individuals to give through,” a Slotkin spokesperson said. Slotkin’s office did not respond to a follow-up inquiry.
“Once you take money from a corporation, there’s sort of an inherent transactional relationship there … From my very first campaign, I never wanted anyone to wonder how I was going to vote and why I was going to vote, so I’ve never taken corporate PAC money,” Slotkin said in a video posted to X July 29. She then thanked Kelly for leading the bill with her in a follow-up post.
Kelly’s 2028 campaign and Democracy Engine did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The DCNF reached out to Kelly’s Senate office and received no response.
Slotkin did not receive Democracy Engine PAC’s money while running for Senate, but her House campaign did as early as 2018, after she had already promised not to take corporate PAC money, FEC filings show. Similarly, Kelly was swearing off corporate PACs in 2019, the year his first Democracy Engine donations began trickling in to his Senate campaign.
Members of the Soros family, known for their financial influence within the Democratic Party, have also used the PAC to Slotkin and Kelly’s benefit.
George Soros’s son and daughter-in-law, Jonathan and Jennifer Allan Soros, eachgave $3,500 to Kelly’s current reelection campaign in April through Democracy Engine, FEC filings show. Jonathan Soros donated in his official role as CEO of JS Capital Management, a financial firm, while Jennifer wrote her employer as the Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros Foundation. The couple alsogave $1,000 each to Slotkin’s House campaign in October 2022.
The DCNF could not reach Jennifer Allan Soros directly. One Madison Group, a firm Jonathan Soros co-founded, did not respond to multiple inquiries.
Soros family members have also donated thousands of dollars individually to the twosenators without using Democracy Engine, according to the FEC. In 2024, Kelly met in person multipletimes with Alex Soros, George Soros’s son and heir to his political advocacy empire, the young Soros’s social media posts show. The lawmakers have nonetheless been outspokencritics of what they deem the harmful influence of money in Politics.
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