'Independent' Senate Candidate Dan Osborn Gets Boost From Bill Gates Progeny, Left-Wing Megadonors in Campaign's Closing Stretch

Osborn began his campaign by hiring Democratic Socialists of America-associated consultants, the Free Beacon reported

Dan Osborn, the Nebraska independent Senate candidate presenting himself as a political moderate in the deep-red state, is getting a late boost to his campaign from liberal megadonors, dark money groups, and PACs, campaign finance disclosures reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show.

Osborn, running against Republican incumbent Deb Fischer, is backed by Washington, D.C.-based PAC Retire Career Politicians, which has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads that urge Nebraskans to “vote independent for U.S. Senate.” But the group itself is far from independent, having raised nearly $2 million in September alone from prominent liberal donors and groups.

Hedge fund executive Donald Sussman, for example, sent the PAC $100,000 on Sept. 20, records show. One day earlier, Retire Career Politicians received $15,000 from self-described university student Phoebe Gates, the daughter of liberal billionaire Bill Gates.

The bulk of the group’s September haul, however, came from liberal nonprofits and political groups, some of which don’t disclose their donors. One such group, the Sixteen Thirty Fund—a well-known entity within the Arabella Advisors dark money network that funneled more than $60 million to liberal causes in 2020—gave $300,000.

Other shadowy entities that bankrolled Retire Career Politicians are less prominent. The Free Beacon compiled information on those groups below:

Organizing Empowerment Project

• Gave $500,000 to Retire Career Politicians on Sept. 25, its first contribution to the group this election cycle.
• Is led by Mike Pfohl, formerly of America Votes, the self-described “coordination hub of the progressive community” that spends millions to advance left-wing policies in swing states thanks to funding from the Sixteen Thirty Fund and other liberal groups.
• Provides Democratic campaigns, activist groups, and labor unions with a free-to-use voter contact app.
• Received funding in 2020 from billionaire Democratic megadonor and Wall Street executive Mike Novogratz to combat “dueling existential threats: potential voter suppression and President Donald Trump.”
• Operates a Michigan-based “coalition” group, Movement Michigan, that has partnered with Black Lives Matter and gun control organization March For Our Lives.

Global Impact Social Welfare Fund

• Gave $300,000 to Retire Career Politicians on Sept. 25, its first contribution to the group this election cycle.
• Provides millions of dollars in funding for gun control, climate change, and racial and gender equity groups, including the Alliance for Gun Responsibility Foundation, the Kansas Values Institute, and Tides Advocacy, a branch of the deep-pocketed left-wing Tides network that spearheaded a push for soft-on-crime policies in California.
• Funded a controversial ad campaign earlier this year that attempted to suppress Republican voter turnout by urging “MAGA PATRIOTS” to “stand strong WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP AGAINST MAIL-IN VOTING.”
  • Liberal election law professor Richard Hasen called the scheme “borderline criminal” in a piece for left-wing magazine Slate.

Movement Voter Project

• Gave $500,000 to Retire Career Politicians on Sept. 13 through its affiliated political arm, Movement Voter PAC, its first contribution to the group this election cycle.
• Movement Voter PAC does disclose its donors, though its affiliated nonprofit, formally known as the All Hands on Deck Network, does not.
• Is led by veteran liberal operative Billy Wimsatt, a former Obama campaign and Ohio Democratic Party adviser.
• Received more than $400,000 from liberal billionaire George Soros through its nonprofit in 2019 and 2020, according to Soros’s disclosures.
• Supported Democratic candidates for Congress in the 2022 election cycle, including Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.) and Reps. Jahana Hayes (Conn.), Susan Wild (Pa.), and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.).
• Contributed millions of dollars to left-wing groups through its nonprofit in 2022, including Gender Justice, the Working Families Organization, and the anti-Israel group Emgage Action.

Sussman, Sixteen Thirty Fund, Organizing Empowerment Project, Global Impact Social Welfare Fund, and Movement Voter Project did not respond to requests for comment. Gates could not be reached for comment.

Though Osborn has presented himself as a centrist, he began his campaign by joining forces with consultants and firms openly associated with the Democratic Socialists for America, the Free Beacon reported.