Who funds Cori Bush and Brand New Congress?

Transparency and accountability in the race to represent Missouri’s 1st

By Ron Stubblefield

Recently, our very own Cori Bush, candidate for Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, was attacked by her opponent Congressman Clay for associating with Brand New Congress (BNC) and Justice Democrats (JD), whom he accused of being dark money conduits. The Congressman’s statements are patently false. We’re here, not to just simply tell you the Congressman is wrong, we’re here to show you the evidence.

Citizens’ trust in our politicians and government is around all-time lows due, in significant part, to money in politics. The lack of transparency around who influences our politicians is antithetical to the existence of a legitimately functioning democracy. In the landmark Citizens United case, Justice Kennedy, writing for the majority, wrote, “transparency enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and messages.”

People invest in political campaigns to influence the decisions of the voting electorate. Voters have a right to know who is making these investments and why they are investing in particular candidates in order to make informed voting choices. Dark money, the art of providing political donations where the original donors and sources of money are unknown, is intentionally designed to be non-transparent. Money is funneled through 501(c) non-profit organizations, Super PACs, and LLC/Shell Companies with the goal of keeping voters unaware of a candidate’s allegiance and ties. This is not how we build an informed electorate or a trusted government. Thus, it is understandable that voters should be concerned when any candidate is accused of accepting dark money. Any accusations that a candidate has accepted such funds should not be made lightly.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case. As stated by Congressman Clay, “I have fully disclosed what my expenditures go to, how I derive my money, but yet some of my opponents are involved with dark-money groups like Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress who are not fully accounting for those expenditures.” When initially challenged on this statement, the Congressman indicated he stands by it.

It is truly shameful that Congressman Clay chooses to stand on a lie. A lie easily disproved by reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

As shown above, Cori has received her funding from either itemized or unitemized individual contributions. For the uninitiated, an itemized individual contribution is generally one where the donor has given $200.00 or more to a campaign. In contrast, an unitemized individual contribution is one where the donor has given less than $200.00 to a campaign. As demonstrated by the chart below, Cori’s campaign is driven by small donations from individual voters. She has not received any contributions from the entities such as 501(c) non-profit organizations, Super PACs, and LLC/Shell Companies which provide candidates money at levels above and beyond the $200.00 threshold while shielding the identities of the original donors. (i.e. dark money).

When you click on the itemized contribution link, and scroll through the donations to the Bush campaign, one will see that her funding came individual people, many of whom made their contributions on ActBlue, which is simply portal for individual people to give to candidates they support. You can find Cori Bush’s ActBlue link here and Congressman Clay’s ActBlue link here.

Congressman Clay claims about BNC and JD using dark money are also incorrect. Going through the FEC data for both BNC and JD demonstrates the following:

1. Like Cori Bush’s campaign, BNC and JD are driven by small donations. Like Bush’s campaign, BNC and JD are not driven by large donations from the entities such as 501(c) non-profit organizations, Super PACs, and LLC/Shell Companies which provide candidates money at levels above and beyond the $200.00 threshold while shielding the identities of the original donors. (i.e. dark money);
2. When you go click on the itemized contribution links for both BNC and JD and scroll through the donations one will see that BNC and JD’s donations came directly from individual people, many of whom did so through ActBlue-BNC’s ActBlue can be found here, while JD’s can be found here.
3. Additional receipts for both BNC and JD are due to refunds from vendors and reimbursements from candidates, cross payments to each other for campaign expenditures, and donations from terminated campaigns of clearly identified individuals.

As shown by public records, BNC and JD’s funding comes from small dollar grassroots efforts to reach out to voters who simply want a policy agenda that places social wellbeing over corporate welfare. This is why we, and our candidates, have never accepted corporate or dark money. Frankly, a movement fueled by the power of the people does not need the support of the barons of industry.

Contrastingly, Congressman Clay’s financials tell a different story as to where his support and potential allegiances lie:

Approximately 18% of his itemized individual contributions, the full listing may be found here, came from various business entities. One of which includes Northside Regeneration. This group is presently facing a lawsuit from the State of Missouri for tax credit fraud and unjust enrichment associated with their failure to use public funding to invest in rebuilding St. Louis neighborhoods. Concurrently, the City of St. Louis is terminating an agreement with them for their failure to invest in rebuilding neighborhoods in St. Louis despite receiving tax-increment financing from the city to do so.

Other Committee Contributions, where the bulk of Clay’s funding is coming from, consist of donations principally come from private corporate interest. These also show Clay has significant ties to the finance industry-including large banks and small payday lenders. These are the same types of groups who continually exploit the predominantly Black and White working-class communities, such as the ones making up Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, through predatory and discriminatory lending practices.

Clay is receiving support from the same types of entities who preyed on the people of Missouri’s 1st Congressional District through predatory lending, modern day redlining, and alleged public tax dollar swindling. Cori Bush is receiving all her support from individual people who’ve been taken advantage of by these groups.

This election is a referendum on the type of leadership the people of Missouri’s 1st want to see. On one side is an incumbent who is financially backed by many groups who have proven to not have the best interests of the people of Missouri’s 1st at heart. On the other side, you have an insurgency led by Cori Bush, a proven champion of people of her community. In the face of her campaign’s rapidly rising momentum, resembling that of the Ocasio-Cortez campaign against the former fourth most powerful Democrat in the House, Clay felt desperate. Desperate people, including politicians, tend to do desperate things. Desperate politicians go negative and spew falsehoods in political campaigns. Clay’s accusations of dark money in this race is a textbook example of the axiom of desperate conduct from more desperate men. This could have been avoided if the Congressman exercised the level of integrity and due diligence to which a Congressional representative ought to hold themselves — the standard to which Cori Bush consistently rises.

As we approach tomorrow’s primary, it is BNC’s hope that Congressman Clay will stop standing behind his false claim, explain why he made such an insidious statement, explain why he accepts contributions from groups which do not have the people of his District’s interest at heart, and justify on the merits why his policy stances are better for the district that Cori Bush’s. If he cannot, or chooses not, to do these things, then the people of Missouri’s 1st should look forward to casting their ballots for future Congresswoman Bush tomorrow.

Ron Stubblefield is an attorney licensed with the state of Maryland. His career is focused on economic development. He volunteers with Brand New Congress by contributing to platform and policy development and commenting on the issues that matter to voters.