One of our readers pinged me with this story. It’s from earlier this year and it’s from a subscription site, so here’s the gist:
In January, the House Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), raised more than $2.5 million from the top lobbying firm for two companies closely aligned Trump and DOGE—Palantir and SpaceX, according to the Federal Election Commission filing. The money was bundled by lobbyists with the bipartisan firm Invariant, which held a fundraiser for the DCCC on Jan. 22 that was headlined by DCCC Chairwoman Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) and House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.).
Invariant’s highest-paying client is Palantir, the Peter Thiel-founded government contractor whose employees helped to staff DOGE. Palantir has been considered one of the top stock picks of the DOGE era as the company’s artificial intelligence-powered software is well positioned to win contracts to replace functions eliminated by DOGE’s slashing. Palantir paid Invariant $720,000 last year for lobbying. The firm lobbies for the company on software procurement and potential contracts with agencies like the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, and Internal Revenue Service, according to filings.
Several of the Invariant lobbyists who helped to bundle the funds for the DCCC are on the Palantir contract, and one, Ben Klein, joined the firm last year straight off a stint as an in-house lobbyist with Palantir, where he helped to scale the firm’s government affair’s function. Some of the other bundlers are former Republican staffers, such as Invariant Principal Annabell McWherter, who spent time in the office of Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) before moving through the revolving door.
Here’s my take on why establishment Democrats are taking money from these obviously awful corporations:
The base has lost faith in Democratic institutions so they give money directly to candidates they like via Act Blue.
DCCC, DSCC and DNC fundraising is in the toilet, but they need to make money to be relevant in our money-driven politics.
Jeffries, Schumer, et. al. solicit money from awful corporations with a shit-ton of money.
The ugly facts of where Democrats get money further depresses the base’s desire to give the establishment money.
Therefore, the establishment has still more incentive to raise money from bad actors.
The only way to break this cycle is to get rid of the current leadership of the Democratic Party. Having a central party that distributes money is a good thing, in general. But the current establishment has lost the plot, so here we are.
