A group of New Yorkers is helping a pair of Kansas House candidates raise money in an effort to flip the two seats in favor of Democrats.
A group called NY4US this week held a virtual fundraising event for Democratic House candidates Jo Ella Hoye in District 17 and Joana Scholtz in District 40.
Hoye and Scholtz are among a dozen Democratic candidates nationally that the group is trying to help win seats and, ultimately, turnover Republican legislatures.
The group is not registered as a political action committee nor is it social welfare group registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(4).
The group says it doesn’t take donations or distribute money. Rather, it leverages ActBlue to connect its network of donors to candidates it supports.
“We were interested in supporting Jo Ella and Joana in order to help break the supermajority in Kansas and empower Gov. Kelly to be able to use her veto power to advocate for all Kansans,” the group said in a statement.
“NY4US has no policy platform,” the group said. “We are a volunteer organization. Our only objective is to direct donations to Democratic candidates running in flippable districts in state legislatures.”
Scholtz said the group reached out to her.
“It’s all small-sized $10 donations,” Scholtz said of the fundraising.
“But those are the kind of things as a grass-roots candidate…that make a candidacy viable,” she said.
On its website, the group described itself as a “community of enthusiastic grassroots donors and volunteers, focused on electing inspiring, progressive leaders to public office and taking back our country.
“We’re committed to helping flip seats and chambers at all levels of government from red to blue,” the website says.
Eric Sporkin, a quantitative trader and developer at the ETF trading firm Jane Street Capital, is one of the co-founders of NY4US. He has a bachelor’s degree in math from Brown.
He declined comment for this story, although the group did agree to answer questions directed through a spokesperson.
Three years ago, the group formed an organization called NY4VA, which focused on races for the Virginia House of Delegates, according to the group’s website.
The group said it backed four female candidates, and it helped them raise more than $100,000. All four of the candidates won.
One of those candidates was Cheryl Turpin, whose 2017 campaign manager was Daniel McNamara, who ran Congresswoman Sharice Davids historic campaign a year later.
“Each of the candidates we supported beat their Republican competitor, sending a powerful signal nationwide that the current political climate will not be tolerated, and that each of us can make a difference acting together,” the group’s website says.
The organization later changed its name to NY4US and expanded its efforts helping candidates in Pennsylvania, Texas, New Hampshire, Maine and North Carolina, as well as New York.
In 2018, NY4US backed 11 candidates running for statehouses, Congress and a seat on a state Supreme Court.
Eight of those candidates won their races, including two current members of Congress – Jared Golden from Maine and Elaine Luria from Virginia – and a member of the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Last year, two of three candidates backed by the group won races, including one who helped flip the Virginia House of Delegates blue.
“We have since raised over $400,000 from thousands of grassroots donors to help flip seats and take back our country,” the group said.
NY4US is just the latest group that is working in Kansas to break the Republican supermajority in the Kansas Legislature.
Emily’s List, for instance, has backed both Hoye and Scholtz. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee also has targeted both those districts.
Scholtz is running against Republican Rep. David French, who defeated Democratic state Rep. Debbie Deere by 70 votes two years ago in District 40.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly carried the Leavenworth County district by about 3 percentage points in 2018. However, it went for President Donald Trump in 2016 and former Gov. Sam Brownback in 2014.
Over in House District 17 in Johnson County, Hoye is trying to win the seat that is held by outgoing Republican state Rep. Tom Cox.
Cox was narrowly reelected to the seat in 2018 even as Kelly carried the district by about 20 percentage points.
Hoye has been campaigning for many months, raising about $47,000 for the election cyle through mid-July. She had about $30,000 on hand as of last summer.
Hoye’s Republican challenger, Kristine Sapp, has about $2,100.
