CO GOP Senate Candidate Backed By Racist Banking Heir
by Chase Woodruff, Colorado Newsline
October 10, 2022
Facing an uphill battle to unseat incumbent U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Republican Senate hopeful Joe O’Dea has received little help to date from deep-pocketed national GOP campaign groups.
But as Election Day approaches, he’s getting a big boost from a megadonor closer to home: the Wyoming-based heir to a 19th-century banking fortune who wrote in a self-published autobiography that Black people are “belligerent” and “unwilling to pitch in to improve their own situations.”
Timothy Mellon, the grandson of banking tycoon Andrew Mellon, donated $4 million to American Policy Fund, a super PAC that has spent heavily throughout the year on ads supporting O’Dea and attacking his opponents, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Super PACs are allowed to accept unlimited contributions from individuals and corporations but are barred from coordinating with candidates or their campaigns.
Mellon’s $4 million is the largest single contribution in support of O’Dea’s candidacy to date. It exceeds both the $2.6 million that the Denver construction CEO has donated or loaned to his own campaign since announcing his run last year, and the $1.25 million that the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC affiliated with Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said that it had donated to American Policy Fund on Monday.