Recent comments from a Democrat congresswoman have been proven false, as data from OpenSecrets shows that Democrats dark money backing is far worse than many realize.
While speaking at the West Des Moines Democratic Party BBQ fundraiser on July 3, Iowa Democrat Rep. Cindy Axne falsely claimed that the Republican Party has “way more dark money” than the Democrats.
“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us because, unfortunately, they’ve got a lot more dark money than we have,” Axne claimed.
“That’s not something that we believe in, but they sure do,” the Democrat rep. continued. “They want to put out the lies that aren’t truthful so they can scare people into thinking things are happening when they really aren’t.”
WATCH:
Dark money groups, which are 501(c)(4) nonprofits that can raise as much money as they want without disclosing donors, are prevalent in the political world. Despite Democrats’ constant complaining about these, they have been taking more and more of their money each election season.
Data from OpenSecrets, the website of the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in politics, shows that liberal groups “directed more than $514 million in dark money into the 2020 election, overshadowing around $200 million that boosted Republicans.”
“That’s a continuation from the 2018 midterm elections when Democrats benefited from more dark money than their Republican counterparts at the federal level for the first time since Citizens United,” the group wrote.
House Majority Forward, a dark money group aligned with Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, has even paid for a couple of ads supporting Axne.
In January of 2020, Axne tweeted about being a founding member of the End Corruption Caucus, writing that she and the other members were “fighting the Washington status quo, taking on special interest groups, and getting dark money out of politics.”
Clearly, she isn’t serious about “getting dark money out of politics” if she is willing to let them pay for her campaign ads. But this is typical for Democrats, ‘do as I say, not as I do.’
