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In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month, NBC News published a story last week on a new national super PAC with a mission to support Asian Americans in politics.
But so far that super PAC, Justice Unites Us, has made just one independent expenditure—$846,000—to support a white man, Carrick Flynn, who tried and failed to win the Democratic nomination for Oregon’s 6th Congressional District.
Because of federal reporting rules, Justice Unites Us reported its expenditure in April but did not have to report the source of the funds until after the primary. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that donor turned out to be Protect Our Future, the super PAC formed by cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried.
That group spent $11.4 million on Flynn’s behalf, setting the record for most money spent by a single PAC for a candidate in a House primary.
State Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-Lake Oswego) won that race.
Bankman-Fried told a Pushkin Industries podcast last week he might spend $1 billion on 2024 federal races, which would be another record for a single donor in a single election cycle.
So-called pop-up PACs, like Justice Unites Us, are not uncommon. This one evaded having to disclose its funding source before the primary by beginning to spend only in April, as Politico reported April 18.
That means the donor didn’t have to be reported to the Federal Election Commission until May 20, days after the Oregon primary.
This latest revelation means that all three PACs who backed Flynn are connected to Bankman-Fried, who donated most of the money for Protect Our Future and gave $6 million to House Majority PAC, affiliated with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—a donation also not revealed till April 20.
By avoiding revealing donations until after the primary, Bankman-Fried dodged questions about how broad Flynn’s support was.
Justice Unites Us initially filed a report listing the D.C.-based health care advocacy organization Protect Our Care as its donor. Only after WW contacted Protect Our Care, which denied any knowledge of the donation, and then contacted Justice Unites Us did the PAC file an amended return on May 24, listing Protect Our Future as its sole donor. The group said it had been a “typo.”