George Soros Spends $52 Million on 2020 Election Cycle
(Robert Kraychik) Left-wing and partisan Democrat billionaire George Soros spent more than $52 million in political spending, per Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings, according to a report for the Washington Free Beacon. The total does not include ostensibly philanthropic spending via his Open Society Foundations network.
The Washington Free Beacon reported on FEC filings from Soros’s political action committee (PAC), Democracy PAC:
Soros ramped up his political spending this cycle through the Democracy PAC, which he created last year to pump large sums into the coffers of other left-wing groups. New filings to the Federal Election Commission show the PAC doled out nearly $17 million last quarter, bringing its total cash disbursements this cycle to $48 million. Soros gave another $4 million directly to Democratic campaigns and committees without first depositing the money into his PAC. The $52 million cash influx is more than double Soros’s previous high of $22 million, which came during the last presidential election.
Soros’s political spending captured by the FEC in 2020 is $30 more than it was in 2016.
According to Open Secrets, Democracy PAC raised $51,635,003 in 2020, of which it has spent $48,091,590. Its beneficiaries are all left-wing and partisan Democrat PACs, including Senate Majority PAC, Priorities USA Action, Win Justice PAC, Illinois Justice & Public Safety PAC, Supermajority PAC, American Bridge 21st Century, and Pacronym.
The Washington Free Beacon described the layers of PACs through which Soros’s dollars travel before arriving at their end destination in order to obscure his role as a political benefactor:
The liberal billionaire is taking steps to obscure his election spending this cycle. In the past, he made donations to groups directly in his own name. This cycle, he has operated primarily by transferring tens of millions from the Fund for Policy Reform, a $750 million nonprofit in his sprawling Open Society Foundation network, into Democracy PAC. The PAC then disburses it to other Democratic PACs and committees. This arrangement allows Soros to keep his name from the top of donor lists. His $50 million in contributions makes him the largest donor of the 2020 cycle, though only $8 million is coming directly from him.
Beyond political spending recorded by the FEC, Soros’s Open Society Foundations network claims to have spent over $15 billion over the past three decades. The U.S. is the organization’s primary target in terms of total dollars spent on any single country.
The Open Society Foundation’s 2020 budget was valued at over $1.2 billion, of which $261 million was spent targeting America. A majority of the $261 spent on the U.S. was said to fund “democratic practice, economic equity and justice,” “equality and antidiscrimination,” “justice reform and the rule of law,” and “cross-thematic” programs.
