Joanna Weiss Accepts Tens of Thousands of Dollars From MAGA Donors

Note:  The Weiss Twitter crowd is screaming this announcement from the Min campaign is anti-semitic or anti-Jewish tropes; I fail to see how identifying donors to the IE benefiting the Weiss campaign by name and amount given to Republican candidates is anti-Semitic.  Her husband is Jewish; she is not.  The money that her campaign benefits from is most certainly red and is from donors who do not reflect democratic values.  As the campaign is paying at least one Tweeter, this argument isn’t working and the Weiss campaign isn’t getting their money’s worth out of the argument.

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Joanna Weiss’s campaign finance reports read like a who’s who of GOP donors, with their dollars speaking louder than her Democratic facade

IRVINE, CA —  Joanna Weiss for Congress campaign has received tens of thousands in support from prominent Republican donors, according to the Federal Election Commission’s most recent release of campaign finance filings. This revelation follows previous reports showing that the super PAC supporting Joanna Weiss — currently over $3.6 million and counting –  has also largely been funded by MAGA Republicans, and that Weiss has been self-funding her campaign with hundreds of thousands of dollars earned from defending the Catholic Church in its child molestation and sex abuse cases.

“The revelation of Joanna Weiss’s campaign finances paints a disturbing picture: tens of thousands of dollars in funding from MAGA Republicans, self-funding from defending the Catholic Church in sexual abuse cases, and a lack of prior political experience or residency in CA-47,” said Amelia Matier, campaign spokesperson. “It raises the question: is Weiss’s Democratic candidacy a Trojan horse for Republican interests, using her campaign to sow division and undermine the party from within? With donations from individuals like Robert Kargman, who bankrolls the likes of Trump and Herschel Walker, and Steven Klinghoffer, a financier of Cruz and Rubio, it’s clear her allegiances lie far from the Democratic values she claims to represent. Voters in CA-47 deserve better than a candidate bankrolled by those seeking to undermine their interests.”

Among the long list of contributions from major Republican donors are the following:

• $5,500 from Robert Kargman, who has contributed to MAGA Republicans including Donald Trump, Herschel Walker, Michelle Steel, Kelly Loeffler, Ron Johnson, and Vivek Ramaswamy.
• $3,300 from Steven Klinghoffer, who has contributed to Steve Scalise, Ted Cruz, Lindsay Graham, and Marco Rubio.
• $3,300 from Robert Efroymson, who has contributed to Mike Johnson, Ted Cruz, David Perdue, and Kevin McCarthy
• $3,300 from Mona Sterling, who has contributed to Mike Johnson, Doctor Oz for Senate, JD Vance, and Lee Zeldin.
• $3,300 from Marty Glick, who has contributed to Herschel Walker, Tim Scott, Ken Calvert, and David Perdue
• $3,300 from Louis Kaplow, who has contributed to Mike Johnson, Ken Calvert, and Steve Scalise.
• $3,300 from Larry Mizel, who has contributed to Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Mike Johnson, Ted Cruz, JD Vance, Doctor Oz for Senate, Ted Cruz, and Kevin McCarthy.
• $1,000 from Howard Krane, who testified in support of far-right Judge Robert Bork’s 1987 nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Min is endorsed by outgoing Rep. Katie Porter, as well as the California Democratic Party, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, California Environmental Voters, and over 150 local, state, and federal officials. Min is the unanimous choice of organized labor in this race, as he is the only candidate to receive support from national, statewide, and local unions, and he is the only candidate endorsed in this race by the California Labor Federation or the AFL-CIO. A full endorsement list is available here.

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California’s 47th is an open Congressional District in Orange County that includes the Cities of Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Newport Beach, and Seal Beach, and portions of Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, and Laguna Woods. Incumbent Katie Porter is vacating the seat to run for U.S. Senate. In 2022, Porter defeated former Assemblymember Republican Scott Baugh by 3.44% in this “toss-up” district. State Senator Dave Min currently represents over 80% of Congressional District 47 in Sacramento. In 2020, Min received over 158,000 votes within CA-47, defeating incumbent John Moorlach by 5.15% in this area. 19% of the registered voters in CA-47 are of Asian and Pacific Islander descent, including one of the largest Korean-American populations in the country.