Megadonor Koch Discovers Principles, Closes Checkbook to Party Committee at Moment of Maximum Inconvenience
The family that wired seven figures last cycle has this year contributed a sum described by accountants as a round number
Ink = the flip (fiction). Red = real Republican · Blue = real Democrat.
NEW YORK — The party's national committee has a donor problem, and the donor is the one it used to put on posters. Financier Koch and his son, who together wired more than a million dollars during the last midterm cycle, have this year given the committee exactly nothing, a figure that requires no adjustment for inflation.
Committee officials describe the pause as a private matter between a family and its money. Strategists describe it as a five-alarm signal about the party's direction. The Press notes that when the other side's megadonor does this, it is called accountability, and when one's own does it, it is called hostage-taking, and that the two phrases rotate owners at each filing deadline.
The family's office offered no comment, which in the dialect of large money is a comment.
Rank-and-file donors were reportedly urged to fill the gap with grassroots contributions, marking the one week per cycle in which the small donor is described as the soul of the party rather than a list to be rented.
The Press takes no position on any billionaire's portfolio. We observe only that 'get big money out of politics' remains the most popular policy never to have survived contact with a friendly billionaire, in either party, ever.
📜 The Receipts
What actually happened: George Soros and his son Alex, who gave over $1 million during the 2022 midterm cycle, have not given the DNC anything this cycle as major Democratic donors withhold contributions.