EXCLUSIVE: How Democrats' Sixteen Thirty Fund poured almost $20 million in 2024; Republicans brace for a repeat in spending onslaught
If the Democrats repeat their 2024 playbook in 2026, Republicans could be in trouble on the money front. Here's why.
Democratic dark money tied to organizations that want to end fossil fuels, abolish ICE, and defund the police flowed to key battleground states in 2024, and Republicans are concerned that Democrats will turn to similar sources once again for the 2026 midterms.
According to tax filings obtained by the Washington Reporter, the Sixteen Thirty Fund — which is backed by organizations tied to both George Soros and to Hansjörg Wyss, a Swiss billionaire — spent almost $20 million in Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Maine last year.
Among the Sixteen Thirty Fund’s offerings are a “secret social media astroturf machine” and foreign money that are part and parcel of the group, which has cumulatively spent over $1 billion in American politics.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund will often work to obscure its activities, using trade names like Families Over Billionaires, as the New York Post’s Josh Christenson and Ryan King reported.
“Families Over Billionaires is nothing more than a front group for the dark money behemoth Sixteen Thirty Fund,” Americans for Public Trust’s executive director, Caitlin Sutherland, explained at the time.
The Reporter’s review of Sixteen Thirty’s 2024 activities shows a similar pattern: the organization funneled millions of dollars to nonpartisan-sounding groups, like the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio, Red Wine & Blue, the Michigan Peoples Campaign, New Rural Project, and more — but Republicans allege that these groups are tantamount to serving as arms of the Democratic Party in states that all boasted critical statewide and local races in 2024.
In Ohio, where Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) was defeated by Sen. Bernie Moreno (R., Ohio), Sixteen Thirty routed almost $10 million to organizations like Citizens Not Politicians — which received $6 million from Sixteen Thirty — Innovation Ohio, Ohio Organizing Campaign,
These gifts are categorized by the fund as serving as everything from “capacity building” to “civil rights, social action, advocacy” to “environmental programs” and more. The Soros ties could prove problematic against for Brown, because he is now seeking to oust Sen. Jon Husted (R., Ohio); Brown has taken money from Soros family members, including George and Alex, for decades.
In 2026, Republicans are likely to tie Sen. Jon Ossoff (D., Ga.) to the Sixteen Thirty Fund’s activities, in part because he has taken money from Soros and his orbit in the past as well. In 2024, Sixteen Thirty spent almost $1 million on groups like the Black Male Voter Project, the Asian American Advocacy Fund Inc., Future Georgia, and more.
In Maine, where Democratic candidate Graham Platner hired a Soros-backed activist as his campaign manager, the Soros-funded network spent around $250,000 in 2024, sending money to the Wabanaki Alliance, Dirt Road Organizing, Maine Donor Alliance, and the Maine Peoples Alliance.
In Michigan, North Carolina, and New Hampshire — all states where the GOP is competing in now-open Senate races next year — the Sixteen Thirty Fund spent almost $10 million. Of those three, its biggest set of expenditures was in Michigan, where it sent over $1 million to Michigan League of Conservation Voters, as well as almost $3 million to other groups, including the Michigan Civic Action Fund, ProgressNow, Forward Michigan, For Michigan, Conservatives for a Clean Energy Future, and the Committee to Protect Healthcare.
In New Hampshire, where the group spent millions last year, its money went primarily to Forward Action Fund, but other groups, including the New Hampshire Youth Movement Project, the North Main Street Fund, and 603 Forward received hundreds of thousands of dollars between them.
Finally, in North Carolina, Sixteen Thirty sent over $1 million to groups like the New Rural Project, the Committee on States, and to Caroline Federation.