Florida Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, once a critic of dark money, has partnered with the Soros-funded Alianza for Progress to boost her campaign against Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL). Alianza for Progress, a 501(c)4 dark money group, aims to mobilize one million Puerto Rican and “Latinx” voters for Democrats, despite Mucarsel-Powell’s earlier stance against such funding practices.
During her time in Congress, Mucarsel-Powell co-sponsored the For the People Act of 2019, which aimed to eliminate dark money from politics. She called it the “largest anti-corruption voter protection bill” and emphasized the need to restore faith in democracy by removing undisclosed funds. However, her recent collaboration with Alianza, which has received over $3 million from Soros’s Open Society Policy Center since 2020, marks a significant shift in her approach.
This partnership complicates Mucarsel-Powell’s efforts to portray herself as a supporter of ICE, a stance she took in a February op-ed for the Sun Sentinel. In 2018, she criticized ICE as being managed by racists, but she now praises the agency’s role in controlling illegal immigration and criticizes Scott for allegedly undermining it.
Mucarsel-Powell’s change in position and her alliance with a dark money group she previously would have opposed highlight the challenges of her campaign against Scott. While she is likely to win the Democratic primary, she trails Scott by considerable margins in general election polls. Her decision to work with Alianza for Progress underscores the complexities of navigating political alliances and campaign strategies.
