Minnesota For Sale: Soros family edition

In this Part 6 of the Minnesota For Sale series, we dive into the recent political donations of the controversial New York family.

On a number of occasions, we’ve highlighted the Minnesota political donations of the New York-based financier George Soros.

During the most recent election cycle (2021-22), the 92-year-old family patriarch gave large sums to Minnesota Democrats under his own name and through his primary political vehicle, Democracy PAC II.

Source: MN Campaign Finance Board

It’s worth noting some other donations that have come through for state Democrats under the Soros brand.

Soros’ younger son Alexander now runs the Open Society Foundations, the primary Soros-family charitable arm. A January 2023 CNBC profile of the Soros operation noted the following:

Through the network, Soros has donated more than $32 billion over the years, according to its website. It says it gives “thousands of grants every year toward building inclusive and vibrant democracies,” with active projects in more than 120 countries.

Source: CNBC, 1/5/2023

That’s “billion,” with a “b.”

Alexander himself has been making news of late, reportedly visiting the Biden White House 14 times in the past two years.

Alexander has this photo posted on his Twitter account with current state Attorney General Keith Ellison:

Alexander personally donated to his dear friend’s most recent re-election bid.

Source: MN Campaign Finance Board, MN SOS

In addition to his Ellison donation (for the maximum amount of $2,500), Alexander also personally donated to 14 candidates for Minnesota House of Representatives last August. With one exception, the 14 donations were made to Democratic candidates in competitive races. The exception was the donation to the now-Democratic Majority Leader of the House, Jamie Long (DFL-Minneapolis). Long ran unopposed in 2022. All 14 Alexander Soros donations to House candidates were made for the maximum amount of $1,000 per candidate.

Alexander’s older half-brother Jonathan, and Jonathan’s wife Jennifer, also made donations last year in Minnesota.

These four donations were each for the maximum amount for the respective office.

As for the Open Society Foundation, the nonprofit has given two significant donations to Minnesota political causes in recent years:

Source: www.opensocietyfoundations.org

Faith in Minnesota is a major “dark money” political operation, affiliated with the nonprofit ISAIAH. The Vote Yes 4 MPLS committee was the organization pushing the 2021 anti-police ballot referendum in Minneapolis. Open Society provided the seed money for the unsuccessful effort.

Data on donations from Open Society for 2022 and 2023 are not yet available.

It’s fair to say that the Soros-family operation is a major, multi-million-dollar contributor to Democratic politics in Minnesota. However, they are overshadowed by the much larger efforts of Rockefeller-oil heiress Alida Messinger.

In Part 7, we look at some of the money behind controversial Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty.