Florida Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell once said dark money was a threat to democracy. But now that she faces an uphill battle to unseat Sen. Rick Scott (R.), Mucarsel-Powell has joined forces with a George Soros-funded dark money group to prop up her campaign.
Mucarsel-Powell, a former one-term congresswoman who once decried dark money as a big problem in Florida politics, attended an event hosted by Alianza for Progress on July 5 to promote her efforts to "retire Rick Scott in November." But Alianza for Progress itself is a dark money 501(c)4 group that seeks to mobilize one million Puerto Ricans and "Latinxs" to elect Democrats across the state.
As a 501(c)4 group, Alianza for Progress isn’t required to disclose its donors to the public. But available records indicate the group is primarily funded by the Soros-backed Open Society Policy Center. Since 2020, Alianza for Progress has raised nearly $2.75 million from all sources, according to its tax returns. During that same timeframe, the Open Society Policy Center committed just over $3 million in grants to Alianza for Progress.
Mucarsel-Powell’s collaboration with Alianza for Progress could also throw up roadblocks in her efforts to reinvent herself as a supporter of ICE, an agency that she portrayed as being run by racists during her first campaign for Congress in 2018. That version of Mucarsel-Powell would presumably agree with Alianza for Progress’s lobbying efforts to overturn a 2019 state law that banned sanctuary cities and required localities to partner with ICE.
But in February, Mucarsel-Powell penned an op-ed for the Sun Sentinel promoting ICE’s "critically necessary" efforts to stem the tide of illegal immigrants and accused Scott of knee-capping the agency for voting against a failed Senate immigration bill that would have allowed for more than 1.8 million illegal crossings annually.
"In beautiful Osceola county, Latinos of all backgrounds came together to reaffirm our fight for freedom and to retire Rick Scott in November," Mucarsel-Powell wrote in a July 5 post on X before thanking Alianza "for the work you do to celebrate our culture and empower our communities."
In beautiful Osceola county, Latinos of all backgrounds came together to reaffirm our fight for freedom and to retire Rick Scott in November. Thank you, @AlianzaCenter, for the work you do to celebrate our culture and empower our communities. pic.twitter.com/H9iCOdF21h
— Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (@DebbieforFL) July 5, 2024
"Thank you for joining!" Alianza for Progress responded.
Mucarsel-Powell’s move to campaign with the Soros-funded dark money group comes after she took a hard stance against dark money during her first and only term in Congress in 2019. In one of her first moves as an elected official, Mucarsel-Powell co-sponsored the For the People Act of 2019, which she called the "largest anti-corruption voter protection bill that has ever passed through the House."
"It was a vote to take dark money out of politics," Mucarsel-Powell told Keys Weekly in March 2019. "It stops voters from being purged off the rolls. We have had a lot of those problems in Florida."
"It restores faith in democracy," she added.
Mucarsel-Powell’s change of heart on dark money in politics comes as she faces an uphill battle in her campaign to unseat Scott. Though she’s expected to cruise to victory in the Aug. 20 Democratic primary, polls show her trailing by upwards of 17 points against the Republican incumbent.
The Mucarsel-Powell campaign did not return a request for comment.