“Bronin earned $237,000 consulting for a civic organization funded in large part by two prominent benefactors. Then they maxed out their contributions to his congressional campaign.”
Hartford, CT — Bombshell new reporting in The American Prospect exposed Luke Bronin as the handpicked candidate of a coordinated effort by corporate billionaires at the center of a dark money political influence network that is exploiting a gutted and toothless campaign finance system. The network is tied together by an agenda for “deregulating private industry, rejecting universal publicly funded health care, housing, or education, and embracing privatization, austerity, and military intervention.”
By supporting a centrist with a pro-corporate record at workers’ expense against a progressive champion endorsed by the Working Families Party and twenty-five labor unions, billionaire CEOs are paying out to advance a corporate agenda from within the Democratic Party.
“The billionaire class is spending millions against me because I’ve never stopped fighting for working people. They want this seat controlled by corporate interests and dark money, not by the working people of Connecticut. They know I’m a proud product of public housing who has stood on picket lines with workers and fought tooth and nail to protect their rights. My record shows exactly who I am and who I work for — the working families of this district,” said Larson. “They want me out for the same reason Donald Trump put me on his most wanted list: because I’m in their way. I’m not backing down. I didn’t back down when Trump and Republicans tried to gut Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, and Social Security. I didn’t back down as ICE terrorized our communities. I’m not backing down on Trump’s illegal war in Iran. Voters in this district believe in progressive values, workers’ rights, Medicare for All, and leaders who have the courage to stand up to Donald Trump and the billionaire class. This district is not for sale.”
Luke Bronin, a centrist corporate lawyer who built an anti-labor reputation as mayor that dogged his failed 2019 gubernatorial bid, is now known to have personally cashed in as a six-figure consultant for a billionaire-funded organization before launching his congressional campaign, which was quickly then bankrolled by the same billionaires. Voters deserve to know whose interests Luke Bronin would actually represent in Washington.
Key excerpts from The American Prospect:
- “Bronin counts himself among the roster of Democrats whose perceived electability and moderate politics have landed them a seat on The Bench, a months-old political action committee (PAC) dedicated to advancing “the next generation of Democratic leaders.”
- “The Bench and Majority Democrats, another new PAC with seemingly identical goals, share the same fundraising arm—the Majority Fund—and operate a well-oiled machine revealed by The Lever last month to be “playing an unprecedented role in Democratic primaries,” funneling millions of dollars to boost corporate-friendly moderates “while sharing the same big-money donors, political consultants, and often the same policy proposals.” The dark-money network is largely bankrolled by billionaire hedge fund manager Stephen Mandel and his spouse, Susan. They’re also the central backers of The Connecticut Project.”
- “Before kicking off his congressional campaign last summer, Bronin spent some time moonlighting as a consultant for The Connecticut Project, earning six figures for consulting services between 2024 and 2025. According to a financial disclosure filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives on November 28, 2025, Bronin reported $237,000 in personal income from The Connecticut Project. One month after announcing his candidacy, the Mandels maxed out their contributions to Bronin’s primary and convention campaigns, giving a total of $14,000.”
- “Last year, Clifford Asness, co-founder of AQR Capital Management, and his spouse, Laurel, maxed out their individual contributions to Bronin’s primary, convention, and general campaigns, donating $21,000 in total. Asness is a longtime GOP mega-donor who, according to CT Insider, recently donated to GOP Winning Women and the Sentinel Action Fund, which support conservative, corporate-friendly Republican candidates in competitive Senate races.”
- “A recent campaign finance disclosure reviewed by the Prospect shows that Luke Bronin for Congress paid $10,000 to a newly incorporated company for “general campaign consulting” this month; that company is the obscurely named Precinct LLC, which as The Lever reported, “appears to be a kind of central hub for the network.” Precinct LLC’s managing director is Amy Copeland, a senior adviser at Majority Democrats, but the consultancy has direct ties to the billionaires behind the dark-money network. One such billionaire is Seth London, who signed Precinct LLC into existence in January 2025 after penning a memo where he made the case for, among other things, deregulating private industry, rejecting universal publicly funded health care, housing, or education, and embracing privatization, austerity, and military intervention.”
- “Michael Novogratz, co-founder of Fortress Investment Group and CEO of the data center company Galaxy Digital, and his spouse, Sukey, made individual contributions totaling approximately $13,000 to Bronin’s congressional campaign in March.”
- “For their part, Stephen Mandel and Michael Novogratz are also betting big on the AI boom. Residents of Connecticut’s First Congressional District—and frankly, communities across the country—remain concerned about the impact that data center expansion could have on their electricity bills.”
- “Compared to Larson… a lifelong resident of East Hartford, Bronin hails from a starkly different background. He grew up in the tony suburb of Greenwich, Connecticut, and attended the esteemed private school Phillips Exeter Academy. Bronin worked as a corporate lawyer before he was elected mayor, and during his first year in office, he quickly developed a reputation for being anti-labor. Larson, by contrast, grew up in East Hartford’s Mayberry Village housing project, and attended public school; he later returned to the high school he attended to teach history as a public school teacher.”