A deep-pocketed California member of the secretive Democracy Alliance liberal donor club is hosting a $1,000 per-plate fundraising lunch for Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.) at her Piedmont home in September.
Quinn Delaney, who—along with her husband Wayne Jordan—has given millions of dollars to Democratic candidates and liberal groups, is listed as the host for a midday September 21 fundraiser put on by Electing Women Bay Area PAC and authorized by McCaskill's reelection campaign. The group is putting on a second $1,000 fundraiser for McCaskill that evening at an unspecified address in San Francisco, across the bay from Delaney's home.
Delaney and Jordan emerged in the past decade as some of California's biggest political donors, consistently contributing not only to Democratic candidates and committees but also liberal Super PACs such as David Brock's American Bridge 21st Century, which has received $775,000 from the couple. Political contribution records indicate the couple has made over $4.6 million to federally registered groups alone. The couple was among former President Barack Obama's earliest and most loyal supporters, hosting a fundraiser for him at their home in 2007 and contributing between $500,001 to $750,000 to the Obama Foundation last year.
Both are involved members of the Democracy Alliance, a network of wealthy liberal donors who pledge to spend millions supporting liberal organizations. This political spending is largely done through their foundation, which boasts it has spent $35 million "to support the development of powerful social change movements to eliminate structural racism and create a racially just society."
The listed contact on the San Francisco fundraisers is Alexandra Acker-Lyons, a longtime Democratic operative who worked for the Democracy Alliance from 2011 to 2015.
Acker-Lyons did not respond to questions on the fundraiser.
McCaskill, one of the Democratic Party's most prolific fundraisers, last week expressed shock at the $1,000 per-person price tag for a fundraiser President Donald Trump was holding for her Republican opponent Josh Hawley. On May 6, Hollywood heavyweights such as Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg, and J.J. Abrams spent $98,600 to host her fundraiser with former President Barack Obama.
McCaskill's campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the pair of Bay Area $1,000 per-person fundraisers.
Chris Nuelle, a spokesperson for the Missouri Republican Party, was critical of McCaskill's decision to align her campaign with Democratic donors in San Francisco.
"Missouri needs a senator that actually answers to Missourians, not Democratic donors in San Francisco," Nuelle said.
"First, Claire McCaskill held a glitzy fundraiser in Beverly Hills with Hollywood elite, and now Democratic donors and resistance members in California are holding fundraisers to save her failing campaign," he said. "Meanwhile, back in Missouri, the people she was elected to represent still don't have any answers as to whether or not Claire will vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh."
Delaney, whose main focus as a donor is on racial justice, did not respond to a request for an interview on why she's choosing to support McCaskill, who has been criticized by Missouri's African-American community for taking their support for granted.
Earlier this year, McCaskill failed to get a single African-American elected official in the state to sign a letter of support for her reelection campaign.