Thread by @nytimes

Democrats complained, for much of the last decade, that Republicans and their allies were spending hundreds of millions of difficult-to-trace dollars to influence politics. "Dark money" became a dirty word.

Then came the 2020 election.

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Donors and allies of the Democratic Party, spurred by opposition to President Trump, embraced dark money with fresh zeal in 2020, surpassing Republicans in spending by some measures, according to a New York Times analysis.
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The findings reveal the growth and ascendancy of a shadow political infrastructure that is reshaping U.S. politics, as megadonors to these nonprofits take advantage of loose disclosure laws to give millions of dollars in total secrecy.
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Strategists from both parties said their understanding lined up with our findings that the left eclipsed the right in politically oriented nonprofit spending and sophistication ahead of the 2020 election. That shift was fueled by several factors. nyti.ms/343gFxN

The big-money right was fractured over whether to support Trump’s re-election. And Trump’s baseless claims about voter fraud hamstrung efforts by Republicans to compete with progressive groups that spent heavily to promote early and mail voting.
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On the left, the prospect of a second Trump term spurred a new class of megadonors, and helped to allay lingering qualms about the corrosive effect of secret money among some longtime Democratic benefactors.
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Read more about how the left outdid the right at raising and spending millions from undisclosed donors to defeat Donald Trump and alter the political balance of power in Washington. nyti.ms/343gFxN