Big donors have “taken over” the Democrat party, which has sidelined its democratic processes and become completely “out of touch” with the needs of the working class, “which they have now lost,” according to newly former Democrat campaign operative and fundraiser Evan Barker.
Barker’s disillusionment deepened during the recent DNC convention, which she described as a “giant corporate infomercial” where she witnessed big-money influence overshadowing the party’s democratic processes with the “coronation” of Kamala Harris at the behest of elite donors.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Barker described how her lifelong loyalty to the Democratic Party shifted to growing disenchantment and eventual regret for her involvement with Soros-funded campaigns, citing the 2024 DNC convention as a turning point.
After leaving the Democrat gathering, she posted a video expressing her disillusionment with the Party’s shift away from working-class values, saying she “wanted nothing to do with it at that point.” The clip went viral overnight, amassing millions of views, as she insisted she “must have struck a nerve.”
Early Political Involvement
Barker began her career at 17, motivated by a working-class background and firsthand experience with healthcare struggles. Starting as an alternate delegate for Hillary Clinton, she switched to supporting Barack Obama in the 2008 primary. After stints organizing for Democrats, including Clinton’s 2016 campaign which she found “inauthentic,” she became a top fundraiser for the Party and worked nationally for progressive candidates.
“All in all, I probably raised at least $50 million for Democrats,” she says.
Former Democratic campaign fundraiser Evan Barker and Sen. Bernie Sanders. (Photo courtesy Evan Barker)
She describes eventually getting “re-energized” to support the Democrat Party after Donald Trump’s election. However, she eventually became “disillusioned” with both the party’s centrist figures and, later, the progressive candidates she initially championed.
“When I was working for one fundraising firm, I helped a lot of progressive candidates — some were ‘squad’ members, but also ‘squad’-like candidates — believing they were the answer to the more corporate, centrist Democrats,” she said. “But then I soon became very disillusioned with them, too, after the summer of 2020, when I saw how they were all overtaken by identity politics, wokeness and DEI.”
“And that was honestly a huge part of shedding my democratic identity,” she added.
The Donor Class ‘Coronation’ of Kamala
The turning point, according to Barker, was this year’s Democratic National Convention.
“I was truly hoping to see a contested convention,” she said, referring to a process where candidates present platforms directly to voters for a final selection. Instead, she saw what she describes as a “coronation” of Kamala Harris with substantial donor influence behind her candidacy.
“I really, really wanted to see a bunch of different people get on stage and just be forced to say what they stand for, what their vision was for the party, and then have people vote on that,” she said. “I thought that could have been a really incredible moment for them.”
“Instead,” she explained, “they did exactly what they always do — just like they did to Bernie multiple times — by not even allowing a primary this year and simply coronating Kamala Harris.”
Barker voiced frustration with what she saw as the party’s contradiction between its rhetoric and actions.
“It’s just so laughable to see so much hypocrisy there after all I’ve heard from Democrats for the past few years is that ‘democracy is on the ballot’ and how Trump is supposedly trying to end it,” she said.
“So why aren’t you giving us any real reflection of democracy here?” she questioned. “You’re not giving people any choice.”
She highlighted a recent report that prominent donors, such as Laurene Powell Jobs, circulated polling data aimed at persuading other high-profile donors of Harris’s electability, effectively sidelining other candidates.
“Clearly, there was a whole operation behind the scenes,” she said. “This would not have happened, in my opinion, without donor pressure — there’s no way.”
Barker further criticized the lack of policy discussion at the convention, labeling it a “corporate infomercial” disconnected from the struggles of working-class Americans, noting that Democrats “have completely abandoned” working class people like her family.
“Working in fundraising, it was a lot to go up [to the DNC] and just to see the way that the donor suites were intermingled with the corporate media suites, and it just felt so gross,” she stated. “I felt like I was in a giant corporate infomercial with the most elite and out of touch people in the world.”
“I just felt disgusted [there] hearing the most generic platitudes that are empty, that mean nothing, like ‘joy’ and ‘brat,’ and it just made me so upset,” she added, noting that she actually left the DNC a day early and “didn’t even care at that point to hear Harris speak,” rejecting an offer to meet with the vice president.
Democratic Priorities: Losing the Working Class
The former Democratic fundraiser expressed frustration with the Democrat Party’s “tone deaf” reliance on fear-based messaging, claiming it’s focused on “identity politics” and rhetorical comparisons, like calling Trump “Hitler,” rather than on concrete economic issues such as “tariffs, taxes, and Social Security.”
She argues that such tactics alienate working-class voters, who are more concerned with “material things that will impact people’s lives.”
“Trump has the working class now — a multiracial working class — and Democrats should be panicking,” she stated. “They should be shitting themselves that they’ve lost the support of working people.”
“Even Bernie recently pointed out that you can’t win without the working class. But instead, they’re catering to donors and recycling the same rhetoric, like calling Trump ‘Hitler’ or warning about the end of democracy — issues far removed from the priorities of people struggling just to pay their bills,” she explained, noting that as a former Democrat, it’s “infuriating to see the party so out of touch.”
Hypocrisy on Big Money in Politics
Highlighting her experience with donor calls, Barker alleged that the Democratic Party only criticizes dark money when they don’t benefit from it.
“They’re really only against money in politics when it’s not being spent for them,” she said. “That’s the cold, hard truth.”
She recounted how candidates would criticize figures like Tesla CEO Elon Musk for donations to Republican causes while simultaneously courting donations from billionaires such as Alexander Soros, which, she claims, led to a “crack” in her loyalty to the party.
“It’s just such a clear hypocrisy. This was the first crack for me, working in fundraising and seeing this hypocrisy play out constantly on a daily basis, and almost every single donor call that I would do with candidates,” she said.
Pointing out that while Tim Walz criticized Musk for trying to “buy the election,” he’s also seen “cozying up” with George Soros’s son at his New York mansion around the time of the DNC events.
“What a freaking sanctimonious hypocrite,” she said of Walz. “I literally cannot think of anything more hypocritical.”
Slamming Harris and Walz as “self-righteous” and “super hypocritical” on accepting big and dark money in politics while condemning it in others, she suggested that Republicans, especially those like Senator Josh Hawley who “avoid corporate funds,” could be “good messengers” on the issue.
“Democrats only like to decry money in politics when the money isn’t being spent on them,” she reiterated. “It’s the ultimate hypocrisy. It’s just it’s how they are. It’s their MO.”
Criminal Justice: Overtaken by Wokeness
Barker also shared regret over her support of progressive District Attorney campaigns funded by major donors, alleging that criminal justice policies backed by certain left-wing donors were “out of touch” and ultimately harmful to minority communities.
“White-guilted, upper-class liberals in the Democratic Party think decriminalizing everything is the answer, but it actually hurts poor black and brown communities the most,” she said. “They’re left to deal with the fallout, while rich liberal donors — including George and Alexander Soros — remain untouched by these policies as they stay in their ivory towers.”
“These communities actually favor more police, not less,” she added, noting “this whole approach has only made the situation more racist and worse for communities and people of color.”
Citing personal experiences with crime in San Francisco, she argued that policies decriminalizing petty theft up to certain amounts have worsened conditions in underserved neighborhoods.
“I’ve been living in San Francisco for the past year — unfortunately — and my car’s been broken into three times,” she said. “I see it all the time and it’s made me realize, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe I supported the groups that helped get [former San Francisco DA] Chesa Boudin elected.’”
“I really regret it,” she admitted, “and now I’m trying to right those wrongs.”
Donor Influence on Harris: a “Complete Empty Vessel”
Barker criticized Harris as lacking consistent principles, suggesting she “says whatever she needs to say at the time to win.”
She argues that the vice president doesn’t have the conviction typical of more steadfast progressives, like Bernie Sanders.
“I don’t think she has real values. Obviously she said really progressive things, but I think she’s a complete empty vessel. She’s not like a Bernie progressive that has always been consistent and said the same thing,” she stated.
“She literally will just say anything,” the former campaign operative added. “She’s empty. She doesn’t have her own convictions, policies or ideas.”
Additionally, she expressed disappointment with Harris’s decision to select Tim Walz for outreach to the Rust Belt, suggesting it demonstrated a lack of understanding of cultural differences between regions.
“Picking Tim Walz was such a huge mistake. It just shows how out of touch they are,” she said. “You pick a super-progressive prosecutor from Berkeley, California to represent the whole country, and then expect Walz to connect with the Rust Belt? Give me a break. There’s a massive cultural gap between Minnesota and places like Ohio or Pennsylvania.”
“As someone from Missouri, I can tell you, Minnesota is way more like California,” she added.
Barker then noted that “a culturally relevant choice” like Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, might have had stronger appeal in swing states.
“Josh Shapiro would’ve been a much better choice,” she said, “but maybe the Democratic Party’s too antisemitic for a Jewish VP.”
“I honestly can’t think of another reason they’d overlook him — it just doesn’t add up,” she added.
With the 2024 election approaching, she expressed concern that a potential Kamala Harris presidency would be beholden to the interests of wealthy donors, rather than to the voters, saying she would simply be a “puppet for the donor class and their interest” if she were to be elected.
She pointed to recent reports suggesting that influential donor circles had lobbied aggressively for Harris and argued that her record lacked evidence of core policy convictions.
“They know Kamala has no backbone, she has no convictions, she has nothing she really believes in,” Barker insisted. “So I’m sure they will get the job done with her if she is elected — 100 percent.”
Barker is not alone in her frustration.
Audrey McNeal, a 22-year-old former DNC delegate, recently announced she’s leaving the Democratic Party.
In a video shared on social media, McNeal explained, “In 2020, I was elected at 18 to become one of the youngest delegates… But this year, I’m casting my ballot for Donald Trump.”
Meanwhile, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (I-HI), who ran for president as a Democrat in 2020, declared her switch to the Republican Party during a Trump rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, last week.
The matter comes as Democrats face mounting pressure to reconnect with their working-class base and address growing criticisms of donor influence overshadowing grassroots priorities ahead of the upcoming election.
Recent polling shows that Democrats are struggling to retain support from working-class voters across key states, while recent Gallup polling showed more Americans either identify as Republicans or are more in line with the GOP than Democrats, Breitbart News reported.
In a national poll from NY Times/Sienna released Friday, Trump surged to a one-point lead over Kamala Harris, 47 to 46 percent.
On Sunday, NBC national political correspondent Steve Kornacki noted that a series of new polls all showed Trump ahead of Harris.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
