Denise Powell was a paid political consultant for the Sixteen Thirty Fund and the New Venture Fund, which Nebraska’s AG has accused of using illegal foreign funding
Nebraska Democrat Denise Powell made tens of thousands of dollars working as a consultant for left-wing dark money groups like the Sixteen Thirty Fund. Now, as a candidate for the state’s Second Congressional District—and as some of her clients fend off a lawsuit from Nebraska’s attorney general—she’s campaigning on a pledge to “get dark money out of politics once and for all.”
Powell, who won the Democratic primary for the Omaha-based seat in mid-May, worked as a consultant for the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the New Venture Fund, the Nebraska Donor Alliance, Western Futures Fund, and the Second House Collaborative, according to her financial disclosures. All of the groups paid her at least $5,000—and all are awash in “dark money,” a term used to describe donations from undisclosed donors that are used to influence politics.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund, which Politico dubbed the “left’s preeminent dark money hub,” gave $311 million in 2024 to hundreds of progressive organizations that work on abortion issues, climate change, and voting issues. The New Venture Fund, which was a longtime “sister” organization to the Sixteen Thirty Fund when it operated under the left-wing consulting firm Arabella Advisors, received $628 million in 2024, mostly from anonymous donors, and awarded $429 million in grants to hundreds of climate, civic, and “social action” groups. Nebraska attorney general Mike Hilgers (R.) sued the two groups in November, alleging that they illegally supported left-wing ballot initiatives in the state with “foreign money” from Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss. A district court judge denied a motion to dismiss the suit in April.
The Nebraska Donor Alliance and Western Futures Fund, which do not disclose their donors, are smaller operations. They funneled a respective $2.4 million and $8.7 million in 2024 to groups like the Nebraska Democratic Party and Your Community PAC, a left-wing group that spent nearly $740,000 last year boosting the Democratic nominee for the special election in Tennessee’s Seventh Congressional District, Aftyn Behn, who called Tennessee a “racist state.” Western Futures Fund has since funded a group that spent big backing Powell in her tight primary race against Democratic state legislator John Cavanaugh.
The Second House Collaborative—a Lincoln-based nonprofit that also does not disclose its donors and worked on a Nebraska ballot measure “enshrining abortion rights into the Nebraska constitution”—has ties to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which gave it a $50,000 grant in 2024, according to tax filings. The collaborative funneled $100,000 to Powell’s consulting firm, She’s Electable, for “get out the vote” efforts in 2024.
Powell’s work for the “dark money” groups is at odds with her rhetoric on the campaign trail.
Powell, like many Democrats, has made the scourge of “dark money” a campaign talking point, saying on her campaign website that she aims to “get dark money out of politics once and for all.” She has also called it “false” to say she’s taken funds from dark-money groups, as one ad aired during the primary alleged.
It’s unclear exactly how much money Powell personally made from groups like the Sixteen Thirty Fund. Her financial disclosure states that she earned nearly $160,000 from her consulting firm in 2024, but federal ethics rules only require Powell to list entities that paid her more than $5,000 rather than disclosing the specific amounts. That means she’s made at least $25,000 from the five “dark money” entities.
Powell has continued to benefit from at least one of those groups as a candidate. Fight for Nebraska PAC spent $1.2 million on ads supporting Powell in her primary against Cavanaugh, which she won by just 1,080 votes. The group is funded by Western Futures Fund, the same dark-money advocacy group for which Powell has worked for in the past, and The Bench, a PAC whose top donors are billionaire businessmen Stephen Mandel and Mark Heising, according to Nebraska Public Media.
Democrats have decried dark money even as the party has far surpassed Republicans in its reliance on untraceable funds. According to the Brennan Center, Democrats received $1.2 billion from dark-money groups in 2024, nearly double the $664 million given to Republicans.
Western Futures Fund and the Sixteen Thirty Fund have dabbled in Nebraska politics before. In 2024, they donated $970,000 and $2 million, respectively, to Retire Career Politicians, a group that backed Nebraska Independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn over Deb Fischer (R., Neb.). Retire Career Politicians spent hundreds of thousands of dollars during the 2024 race on ads supporting Libertarian presidential candidate Chase Oliver, part of a ploy to pull conservative voters from Donald Trump.
Powell’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Read the full article here
