Campaign finance records in Oregon have revealed that Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt recently received $213,000 in in-kind contributions associated with George Soros via the far-left Working Families Party. This substantial backing represents the most significant contribution from a single source in what has become an increasingly heated race for the position of Multnomah County DA.
Schmidt’s total fundraising amounts to approximately $800,000, notably trailing behind his opponent, Nathan Vasquez, who has amassed over $1 million in campaign funds. With the election slated for May 21, the competition is intensifying.
A closer examination of Federal Election Commission filings unveils the connection between the Working Families Party of Oregon’s donations and Soros, who is known for his support for leftist Democrats much like Schmidt across the nation; in a 2022 Wall Street Journal op-ed Soros said he “transparently” backed candidates like Schmdit, who favor “treating addiction like a disease, not a crime” – in other words, preventing drug addicts from being jailed.
Just days before the Working Families Party of Oregon extended its support to Schmidt, it received a sizable sum of $340,000 from the Working Families Party National PAC. This financial influx coincides with a broader trend, as evidenced by the national PAC’s receipt of a $1 million contribution from Soros’ Democracy PAC in March – which the billionaire lobbyist’s own Fund for Policy Reform contributed $60m to in January.
Vanessa Clifford, a local Working Families Party leader, said her party supports Schmidt’s “vision” for a “just and equitable Multnomah County” but refused to comment on Soros’ funding. Schmidt’s campaign manager, Andrew Rogers, praised the WFP’s support for his campaign.
Meanwhile, the funds provided by the Working Families Party were directed towards campaign materials critiquing Vasquez’s choice not to vote in the 2016 presidential election. Vasquez, a former Republican who later affiliated with the Independent Party before becoming unaffiliated, expressed his disillusionment with national politics during that time and emphasized his subsequent support for Joe Biden.
Vasquez stated that he doubts Soros’ funding will “reflect anything that people who actually live and work here want to see,” in a stinging rebuke to one of the most notorious men on the American left.