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Welcome back to Popular Information, a newsletter dedicated to accountability journalism.
Let’s follow the 💵.
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A network of purportedly progressive super PACs, spending millions in Democratic primaries across the country, is funded by a Republican dark money group, the American Prosperity Alliance (APA).
Newly filed FEC documents reveal that three PACs that claim to oppose Trump and Republican policies — Lead Left PAC, Real Change PAC, and California Blue PAC — are wholly funded by Conservative Americans PAC, another super PAC. Conservative Americans PAC, in turn, received all of its funding this cycle, over $30 million, from the APA.
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The APA is a key part of the GOP financial infrastructure. It was established in 2022 and received $5.5 million in seed funding from the American Action Network, a non-profit associated with the House Republican super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund. Brian Walsh, a top aide to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R), is a senior advisor to the APA, according to a 2024 report in NBC News. Walsh was a founder and former president of the Congressional Leadership Fund and former president of the American Action Network.
Since 2022, the APA has raised over $100 million from undisclosed sources. Millions of dollars were routed from the APA, usually through intermediaries, to the Congressional Leadership Fund and its sister organization, the Senate Leadership Fund. The APA has also funneled cash to MAGA Inc, President Trump’s super PAC, the Republican Convention, and a host of other Republican groups. The APA does not have to disclose its donors because it is organized as a 501(c)(4) non-profit group.
Earlier this month, Popular Information connected Lead Left PAC, Real Change PAC, and California Blue PAC to the Congressional Leadership Fund through shared vendors, personnel, and addresses. Lead Left, for example, listed its address as a mailbox at a Staples at 2241 North Monroe Street in Tallahassee, Florida. Of the roughly 48,500 distinct political committees that have filed with the FEC since 2016, only two others share an address with Lead Left. Both of those committees are connected to the Crosby Ottenhoff Group, the political compliance firm founded by Caleb Crosby, the treasurer of the Congressional Leadership Fund.
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The money trail, however, removes any remaining doubt about the true motivations of Lead Left and the other sham PACs. They have sought to bolster Democratic candidates that Republicans believe will be weaker in the general election, including fringe candidates with repugnant views.
In Texas’ 35th District, for example, Lead Left spent over $1 million supporting Maureen Galindo in the Democratic primary. Galindo, a sex therapist, pledged to transform ICE detention centers into a “prison for American Zionists” and a “castration processing center for pedophiles which will probably be most of the Zionists.” Galindo’s campaign raised less than $11,000, of which $4,100 was a contribution from the candidate.
Galindo lost to Democrat Johnny Garcia in the May runoff. But in Maine, Real Change PAC spent $500,000 boosting Matt Dunlap, who won the primary in Maine’s 2nd District. Dunlap is not a fringe candidate; he currently serves as Maine's state auditor. But establishment Democrats supported his chief oppo