Where A Secretive Dem Dark Money Network May Strike Next

As Graham Platner crashed out of the Maine Senate race over rape accusations, a nebulous group stepped out of the shadows with millions of dollars to boost Democrats in the state. In the immediate aftermath of the scandal, a 30-second $2.5 million TV spot popped up attacking Republican Susan Collins for her vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and her pro-life voting record.

The ad was paid for by a group called “Affordable Maine,” which records show is a creation of the Opportunity Action Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based dark money group run by well-connected activists poised to spend millions of dollars backing Democrats in the midterm elections. The group’s sudden injection into the race provides a clue about how a powerful dark money entity will spend its money ahead of the midterm elections. 

Affordable Maine is just one of the dozens of trade names registered by the Opportunity Action Fund, including multiple other “affordable” state-focused groups. The trade names shed light on where Democrats may pour untraceable money next — even as many of the party’s candidates denounce dark money and corporate PACs.

Corporate filings show all of the trade names registered by the Opportunity Action Fund are competitive politically: Affordable Virginia, Affordable Pennsylvania, Affordable Georgia, Affordable Iowa, Affordable Alaska, Affordable Maine, Affordable Ohio, Affordable Michigan, and Affordable North Carolina.

Caitlin Sutherland, the executive director of Americans for Public Trust, a watchdog group that first flagged the corporate filings, told the Daily Wire that these trade names are used to disguise the fact that groups dumping into races aren’t as local as they claim to be. She said that trade names should be viewed as a “costume” to hide the true nature of where the spending originates.  

“What they are doing is co-opting this process to make it seem like it’s a local mom and pop grassroots group that can then run ads to support a specific candidate in a state,” Sutherland told The Daily Wire. “We just saw this last week with attacking Susan Collins under the group Affordable Maine. So very important to know it’s not a Maine group.”

All of the groups appear to be moving in concert with each other. The trade names for “affordable” Maine, Michigan, Alaska, Ohio, and North Carolina, for example, were identically registered on April 23, 2026. All of these states have competitive Senate or House races. 

Sutherland expects to see more “affordable” attacks on Republican Dan Sullivan in Alaska as well as on Republican candidates in North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, and Iowa. Spending allocation will likely depend on fundraising numbers and polling. She added that it was telling to see where no trade names had yet been created. For example, no name has been registered for Texas, where Democratic candidate James Talarico is facing off against Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The trade names allow outside groups to “sneak in and sneak out of these competitive districts or these competitive states and make it sound like it is a local group,” Sutherland said. 

The Opportunity Action Fund was first registered in Washington, D.C. on February 20, 2025, and its listed corporate email address is affiliated with Elias Law, the law firm of powerful Democrat lawyer Marc Elias. Elias has made a name for himself by challenging voter integrity laws and representing Democratic candidates.  

The group’s corporate filings list its directors as Mike Russell, Larry Lopez, and Christopher Rackens, who previously worked several Capitol Hill jobs for House Democrats.

Another one of the Opportunity Action Fund’s trade names is Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy, which used to be a project of the Democrat aligned Forward Action Fund. The group’s affiliated PAC announced plans to spend $50 million backing Democrats in the midterm elections. The organization and its PAC share the same website and describes itself as a “project” of the Opportunity Action Fund. 

The $50 million campaign said its focus would be on Senate races in North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Maine, and Ohio, and on Iowa and Pennsylvania House races, all states with Opportunity Action Fund “affordable” trade names. 

The group is led by Sondra Goldschein, who previously worked for the far-left ACLU as the deputy national political director. Its goals include pushing paid medical leave and “affordable child care.” 

The Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy PAC reported raising $22 million for the 2024 election cycle. Its current reported receipts from January 2025 to May 2026 sit at over $2.8 million. About $2 million of these funds were from Pivotal Ventures, a group tied to Melinda French Gates, the ex-wife of billionaire Bill Gates. Those funds were marked for the PAC’s non-contribution account, meaning they cannot directly go toward candidates.  

Two of the projects of the Campaign For a Family Friendly Economy include Affordable Virginia and Affordable Pennsylvania, both trade names of the Opportunity Action Fund that were previously housed by the Forward Action Fund. 

Affordable Pennsylvania has focused its attention on attacking Republican lawmakers including Reps Ryan Mackenzie, Rob Bresnahan, and Scott Perry. The group attacked the trio for voting for more accountability for welfare benefits. 

One upcoming event sponsored by Affordable Pennsylvania bills itself as a “town hall” that “will put people as the center of the affordability crisis and hold Congressman Mackenzie accountable to us — not his billionaire buddies on their yachts.”

Affordable Virginia focused much of its attention on going after GOP Rep. Jen Kiggans. The group no longer appears to have an active website, but is still listed as an active trade name of the Opportunity Action Fund. 

Other of the “affordable” trade names don’t yet appear to have active websites. Going to a webpage for AffordableIowa.org ends up on a page announcing that it will be “launching soon.” 

Sutherland said that voters in these states should carefully scrutinize the groups behind the ads they see.

“They really need to question why is this group not being transparent about who they actually are,” she said. “It’s important to take a step back and to scrutinize where that message is coming from before it impacts your vote.”

In addition to the “affordable” trade names, the Opportunity Action fund registered groups like “The Rural Path” and “Astronauts for America Action Fund” as trade names. A website for The Rural Path has expired, but The Rural Path PAC has an active website that states its goal is to improve Democrat performance among rural voters. The Astronauts for America Action Fund has signed its name to a letter complaining about funding cuts. 

With the failure of the Democratic Party in the 2024 election and the growing toxicity of dark money groups like the Sixteen Thirty Fund, there is an opening for groups to assert themselves as the top outside spender ahead of the next presidential election.

“All these groups on the left are going to be jockeying for who is going to be the main outside group that is going to have all the money, and the infrastructure ahead of a presidential year, that’s really not that far away,” Sutherland said. “Time and time again, we see Democrats decry dark money, but the Left is the one benefiting the most from dark money.”