Senators Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan are once again trying to sell voters on their “anti-corporate” credentials, reintroducing a bill to ban corporate PACs. But Federal Election Commission filings reveal that both have benefited heavily from Democracy Engine Inc. PAC — a Soros-linked operation built to funnel corporate-affiliated money in a way that avoids the stigma of traditional PAC donations.
Since 2020, Kelly’s Senate campaign and associated PAC have pulled in over $1.1 million through Democracy Engine. Slotkin’s House campaign took in nearly $300,000 over several years. Both have returned only token amounts — Kelly sent back less than $7,000, Slotkin just $1,500 — while keeping the vast majority of the money.
Democracy Engine, run by Jonathan Zucker, was designed to help corporate donors get around the federal restrictions on how much a business PAC can give. Instead of donating through an official corporate PAC, executives and employees give individually through the Democracy Engine conduit, allowing politicians to claim they’re not taking “corporate PAC” money while still benefiting from corporate-linked cash.
As campaign finance watchdog Parker Thayer explained, “Democracy Engine is just a corporate PAC with extra steps.” He added that Kelly and Slotkin’s push to “ban” corporate PACs is nothing more than a selective crackdown that keeps their favored loopholes intact.
The hypocrisy runs deeper. Slotkin vowed in her very first campaign never to take corporate PAC money. Kelly made similar pledges before his first Senate run. Yet both began accepting Democracy Engine donations soon after making those promises — with some of the money coming from high-profile members of the Soros family.
Jonathan Soros, CEO of JS Capital Management and son of left-wing megadonor George Soros, and his wife Jennifer each gave $3,500 to Kelly’s re-election campaign in April through Democracy Engine. They also donated $1,000 each to Slotkin’s House campaign in 2022. The Soros family has also contributed to both senators directly outside of the Democracy Engine conduit.
Kelly has met multiple times with Alex Soros, heir to George Soros’s political influence network, in recent years. Despite these close connections, both lawmakers continue to posture as champions against the “harmful influence” of money in politics — a claim their own FEC filings undermine.
When confronted, Slotkin’s office tried to downplay the connection, claiming Democracy Engine is “not a corporate PAC” and likening it to ActBlue, the Democrats’ primary online fundraising platform. Yet the group is registered with the FEC as a corporate PAC, and its very purpose — to serve as a conduit for corporate-connected donations — makes that distinction meaningless.
Neither Kelly’s campaign nor Democracy Engine responded to multiple requests for comment. Slotkin’s team stopped answering after their initial attempt to reframe the PAC’s identity.
For critics, the whole episode is a case study in political double-speak. Kelly and Slotkin are pushing legislation that sounds tough on corporate influence while continuing to pocket money funneled through a corporate-affiliated network tied to one of the most influential left-wing dynasties in the country.
The question now is whether voters in Arizona and Michigan will see through the act — and whether the so-called reformers will face any accountability for campaigning on promises they quietly broke once in power.