Will Scharf, a GOP candidate for Missouri Attorney General, tells reporters about his campaign (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).Will Scharf’s hopes of winning the GOP nomination for Missouri attorney general got a massive financial boost on Tuesday, when a group connected to influential conservative activist Leonard Leo donated $2 million to the effort.
Tuesday’s check came from the Concord Fund, an organization bankrolled by groups connected to Leo — a prolific fundraiser credited as one of the main architects of conservatives’ efforts to reshape the American judicial system.
The money went to Club for Growth Action Missouri, a PAC supporting Scharf in his campaign to unseat incumbent Attorney General Andrew Bailey in the Aug. 6 GOP primary.
Since the beginning of 2023, the Concord Fund has donated $3.5 million to help Scharf. In April, Club for Growth also received $1.4 million from Paul Singer, one of the nation’s richest hedge fund managers.
Club for Growth Action Missouri reported having $2 million cash on hand as of April 1. Since then, the PAC has received more than $4 million in large donations, including the checks from Singer and the Concord Fund.
Scharf’s campaign committee reported having $824,000 cash on hand as of April 1.
Bailey, who was appointed attorney general by Gov. Mike Parson in 2022, reported his campaign committee had $565,000 cash on hand as of April 1. The PAC supporting his candidacy — called Liberty and Justice PAC — reported $1.9 million cash on hand as of April 1.
Since then, Liberty and Justice PAC has reported receiving $1.5 million in large donations.
Leonard Leo
Leo is a lawyer and activist who is a longtime leader at the Federalist Society, the influential conservative legal advocacy group involved in almost every high-profile conservative judicial appointment of recent decades.
He has quietly built a sprawling political network fueled by millions in anonymous dollars. He was the beneficiary of the largest known political donation in U.S. history, when industrialist Barre Seid seeded a nonprofit run by Leo with $1.6 billion in 2022.
According to The New York Times, Leo has helped marshal half a billion dollars in resources over the last decade to bankroll legal, policy and political fights around the country over issues ranging from critical race theory to transgender rights to election law.
Scharf has been active in The Federalist Society for years, and worked on the confirmations of Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
He has publicly called Leo “a dear friend and mentor.”
Cash swap
The seven-figure donation to Club for Growth came soon after the group began shuffling money to another PAC that is currently running attack ads across the state against Bailey.
Defend Missouri was initially organized as the main PAC raising money to support Scharf’s campaign.
Under Missouri campaign finance laws, candidates face contribution limits while independent PACs do not. The trade off for the ability to raise unlimited cash is that while PACs can coordinate with candidates to raise money, it is illegal to coordinate on spending or strategy.
Last summer, Defend Missouri donated nearly all of its money — around $533,000 — to Club for Growth. And for the next year, it remained dormant.
Then last week, Club for Growth donated $465,000 back to Defend Missouri. It sent Defend Missouri another $540,000 on Monday.
As the money was rolling in, Defend Missouri began running ads accusing Bailey of capitulating to Planned Parenthood, an accusation the Republican attorney general firmly denies.
Michael Hafner, Bailey’s campaign spokesman, said in an email to The Independent that Scharf’s campaign is “throwing Hail Marys and wasting millions of dollars of Wall Street money to purchase the attorney general’s office.”
Neither Kristen Sanocki, president of Defend Missouri, nor Justin Smith, treasurer of Club for Growth Missouri, responded to requests for comment on why the money is being transferred back and forth.
Defend Missouri and Club for Growth share much of the same infrastructure. Until it donated all of its money to Club for Growth last year, for example, Defend Missouri was paying consulting fees to Smith’s company.
And both have used a similar slate of vendors, most of which are tied to the Missouri consulting firm Axiom Strategies, which is owned by longtime strategist Jeff Roe.
Scharf’s candidate committee is also paying Axiom Strategies to serve as its general consultant.
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