https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_money
Proponents of dark money maintain it is protected under the First Amendment, while critics complain recipients of dark money (as with any contribution) are beholden to their funders, while voters are kept in the dark about connections between donor and politician when favors are paid back. [3]
https://www.opensecrets.org/dark-money/basics
Dark Money refers to political spending meant to influence the decision of a voter, where the donor is not disclosed and the source of the money is unknown. Depending on the circumstances, Dark Money can refer to funds spent by a political nonprofit or a super PAC.
https://www.brennancenter.org/topics/money-politics/influence-big-money/dark-money
May 7, 2025 · Dark money continues to seep into executive, legislative, and even judicial elections, threatening the impartiality of state supreme courts across the country. Without transparency, voters don’t know who is trying to influence them, making it harder for them to reach informed decisions.
https://theconversation.com/what-is-dark-money-political-spending-and-how-does-it-affect-us-politics-236294
Sep 25, 2024 · Donors often try to conceal their involvement in politics, and campaigns try to hide what they spend their money on.
https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/archive/what-dark-money-5-questions-answered
Oct 30, 2019 · Remember: Some dark money spending is reported to the Federal Election Commission without disclosing donors and some dark money spending isn’t reported at all. The campaign finance watchdog Center for Responsive Politics found that dark money groups reported spending US$181 million in the 2016 federal elections.
https://publicintegrity.org/politics/what-is-political-dark-money-and-is-it-bad/
Jan 20, 2016 · Who regulates political dark money? The nation’s primary regulator of money in politics is the six-member FEC. However, the FEC’s three Republican commissioners and three Democratic ones have significant ideological disagreements about the degree to which dark money is a problem.
https://www.opensecrets.org/dark-money
Learn more about the outside influence of "dark money" groups, which spend millions of dollars on elections without revealing where their money comes from. Get the full picture of who is lobbying government officials. Search by client, firm, industry, or issue to see who is spending to shape policy ...
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/us/politics/dark-money-nonprofits-explainer.html
Apr 3, 2026 · The left is creating new, obscure nonprofits to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into politics and advocacy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Money_(book)
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right is a 2016 non-fiction book written by American investigative journalist Jane Mayer.
https://metropolitandigital.com/the-conversation/17362-what-is-%E2%80%98dark-money%E2%80%99-political-spending-and-how-does-it-affect-us-politics
1 day ago · Every campaign season brings renewed attention [1] to the amount of money influencing American politics, and who is spending it, and for what purposes. In particular, people are concerned about what is called “ dark money [2].” For instance, recent media coverage has pointed to escalating dark money spending on both the Democratic [3] and Republican [4] sides. The term sounds scary and ...
