A new report released by a watchdog group reveals that so-called “dark money” donations heavily favors Democratic candidates over Republicans, despite the former party claiming to be against dark money and corporate financing of political campaigns.
According to Just The News, an analysis of the data from Open Secrets shows that Democrats in 2022 are favored by every wealthy, white-collar industry over the GOP. The party has received $141,282,772 in donations from the securities and investment industry, compared to $106,254,713 for Republicans. Democrats are also more heavily favored by lawyers and law firms, receiving $97,083,049 compared to the Republicans’ $28,194,049.
Health professionals also overwhelmingly favor Democrats, donating $55,887,636, while the GOP received $32,750,396 from the same industry. Non-profit organizations chose Democrats over Republicans by a 3-to-1 margin, with the Democrats receiving $36,460,458 against the GOP’s $12,584,065. Lastly, public sector unions donated significantly more to Democrats, approximately $15,306,481, than to Republicans, at just $1,838,752.
By contrast, only two industries favored Republicans over Democrats: The oil industry, which donated $32,557,888 to the Republicans, against just $6,691,732 for Democrats. Republicans are also favored by Leadership Political Action Committees, which gave $41,462,476 to Republicans, while giving $30,329,333 to Democrats.
Nevertheless, Democrats have attempted to paint Republicans as the party favored by big corporations. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) declared in an interview that “the Republicans are the handmaidens of the special interest. We are not, but the public doesn’t necessarily see it that way. Sometimes they paint us all with the same brush, and we have to make sure that they know who has their interest at heart. By interest, I mean, who is here to serve them.”
“And as was said earlier,” Pelosi added, “there’s a reason that the Republicans put this big dark money there. It’s the price of doing business for them.”