The Democratic Party’s New Dark Money Machine

The Democratic Party’s New Dark Money Machine

From Lever Time by David Sirota

May 21, 2026 · 53 min · Season 7 · Episode 24

About this episode

The episode explores the influence of dark money in the Democratic Party during primary season, featuring interviews with candidates facing opposition from big-money interests.

It’s primary season, and powerful political forces within the Democratic Party are stomping into local races, trying to pick winners and losers. Today on Lever Time, we’re diving into The Lever’s exclusive investigation that exposed billionaires and party operatives pulling strings behind the scenes. Then, David Sirota sits down with two Democratic candidates, Randy Villegas from California and Matt Dunlap from Maine, who are running in hotly contested races that will likely decide control of Congress — and who are now facing opposition from House Democrats’ big-money machine. Click here to read Luke Goldstein and Katya Schwenk’s investigation into political action committees like Majority Democrats and The Bench. Get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and extended interviews by becoming a member at levernews.com/join. To leave a tip for The Lever, click here. It helps us do this kind of independent journalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: David Sirota

Guests: Randy Villegas, Matt Dunlap

Topics covered

  • dark money
  • Democratic Party
  • political campaigns
  • local races
  • Congress control
  • political action committees

Keywords

  • dark money
  • Democratic Party
  • political action committees
  • Congress
  • local races
  • Randy Villegas
  • Matt Dunlap

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Lever, Majority Democrats, The Bench

Places: California, Maine

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