Matt Schlapp's CPAC group took over $180,000 from progressive 'dark money' fund

The American Conservative Union that hosts the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) every year has reportedly received six-figuring funding from a progressive "dark money" group. In an exclusive from The National Pulse, it's described how the ACU, run by Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, received this donation in 2020 from The New Venture Fund.

The National Pulse's Raheem Kassem posted the 990 form of public disclosure from them which confirms their $183,250 donation to Matt Schlapp's American Conservative Union. It can be found on page 75, where it says that The New Venture Fund donated for the purpose of "civil rights, social action, and advocacy."

Axios in early February did a piece that highlighted how Arizona Republican Jim Lamon, a GOP candidate for Senate, paid Schlapp $40,000 for his endorsement.

"Lamon earned our endorsement because he stands for conservative/ America First policies and because he has attended multiple CPAC conferences," ACU board member Matthew Smith said in response to that Axios report.

But now that very aspect of conservatism is put into doubt given The National Pulse's latest findings.

As the outlet describes, Lee Bodner used to be a managing director of Arabella Advisors. This in turn is the overarching umbrella "massive progressive dark money group" that has The New Venture Fund as one of its four prongs.

That's the term that The Atlantic gave Arabella Advisors. They go on to describe how anti-Trump donors were motivated to give funding to the group during the former administration's tenure.

Despite the now-revealed backing by a progressive dark money group funded by anti-Trumpers, former President Donald Trump gave a shout-out to Schlapp last month for his book.

A 2019 report from the Capital Research Center outlined that Arabella Advisors (which The New Venture Fund is apart of) was a progressive giant even before Trump took office: "Between 2013 and 2017, this hydra-like network took in a staggering $1.6 billion to advance the political policies desired by wealthy left-wing interests through hundreds of 'pop-up' groups: websites designed to look like full-fledged 'grassroots' organizations."

Recently, Schlapp took to Twitter to defend controversial transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. "No matter what one thinks of Lia's ability to swim with women her story deserves our compassion. It will be interesting to hear Lia’s pov in 30 years."

This led to an argument between Schlapp and Newsmax's Jenna Ellis.

The National Pulse noted the "you are upset w @CPAC bc we didn’t invite you to speak" line as an example of a "pay for play" dilemma that CPAC now faces. They put forward the argument that anyone with enough money can buy their way on stage.

In a Daily Wire story about Schlapp's Lia Thomas tweet, he attempted to walk back calling the transgender swimmer "her."

He said it was "not an intentional statement one way or the other. The left's war on gender must be confronted and CPAC will continue to do just that."