July 14, 2026
Democratic primary voters need to see that Luke Bronin cannot be trusted to stand up for working people in Connecticut. He is funded by a corporate dark money network with ties to Republican donors and the billionaires building data centers because they want to elect another corporate Democrat to Congress. They even put him on their payroll. John Larson grew up in public housing and has spent his life in public service fighting for working families in Connecticut. In Congress, he has been a champion for Social Security and healthcare, authoring the Affordable Care Act. Now, he is fighting ICE and Trump’s assaults on our democracy.
July 16, 2026
Democratic primary voters at their doors need to learn that Luke Bronin is funded by a corporate billionaire dark money network that wants to defeat progressives and elect more corporate Democrats. The corporate billionaires behind Bronin are tied to Republicans, AI, data centers, and crypto some even put him on their payroll for $237,000 as a part-time consultant. John Larson grew up in public housing and has spent his life in public service fighting for working families in Connecticut. In Congress, he has been a champion for Social Security and healthcare, authoring the Affordable Care Act. Now, he is fighting ICE and Trump’s assaults on our democracy.
Reading about the race:
The American Prospect: Meet Connecticut’s Billionaire-Backed Dark-Money Democrat
Bronin counts himself among the roster of Democrats whose perceived electability and moderate politics have landed them a seat on The Bench…The Bench and Majority Democrats…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.
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…the consultancy has direct ties to the billionaires behind the dark-money network…Seth London…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…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.
Compared to Larson… a lifelong resident of East Hartford…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.
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.
Recent federal election filings show that in May, The Bench’s PAC donated $400,000 to VoteVets…the Bench’s donation indicates that VoteVets’ loyalties may be intertwined with the new corporate Democratic machine…in Connecticut’s 1st District, VoteVets launched a $1 million ad buy for former Hartford mayor and Navy intelligence officer Luke Bronin…the Bench, which, as The Lever revealed this spring, is the billionaire-funded brainchild of longtime corporate Democratic consultants hoping to shift the Democratic Party to the “moderate middle.” The Bench, as well as Majority Democrats, are associated with a host of staff and consultants from the corporate wing of the party.