Billionaire political donor George Soros and members of his family have contributed more than $71,000 to New York Attorney General Letitia James’ campaign funds since 2019, including $31,000 aimed at supporting her re-election bid next year.
Campaign finance records show Soros donated $18,000 in July 2024, while his daughter-in-law, Jennifer Soros, added $13,000 in May. The Soros family has also provided an additional $40,000 to James across earlier election cycles dating back to 2019.
Those figures do not include indirect backing James receives through progressive organizations supported by Soros, most notably the Working Families Party (WFP).
Soros’ philanthropic network, the Open Society Foundation, has directed approximately $23.7 million to the WFP since 2016 through its fundraising arm, Working Families Organization Inc. Separately, Soros and his relatives have given the party’s New York affiliate another $865,000 in direct donations since 2018, according to records.
James’ ties to the WFP stand out in New York politics. In 2003, she became the first candidate backed by the party to win elected office in the state when she secured a City Council seat representing Fort Greene and surrounding Brooklyn neighborhoods.
Although James declined the WFP ballot line during her successful 2018 attorney general campaign—choosing instead to run solely as a Democrat alongside then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo—she has continued to align herself with the party’s progressive platform. The WFP endorsed her again during her 2022 re-election effort.
“George Soros has spent years financing the radical left’s most extreme projects, and the outcome is almost always the same: instability and disorder that is destroying our state,” said Michael Henry, a commercial litigator and Republican challenger preparing to run against James in 2026.
“We saw it with [Manhattan District Attorney] Alvin Bragg, so no one should be surprised that [Soros] is heavily backing Letitia James’ ideological crusades and political vendettas that put New Yorkers’ safety on the back burner,” Henry continued. “When the same donor who funds chaos underwrites New York’s top law enforcement office, the results speak for themselves.”
James has drawn national attention for aggressively pursuing legal action against President Trump and his administration, including fulfilling a 2018 campaign promise to scrutinize Trump’s real estate business practices.
Her civil case accusing Trump of fraudulently inflating his net worth over decades remains active, though Trump notched a significant legal win in August when a state appellate court overturned fines exceeding $500 million that had been imposed as part of the case.
James has also faced legal challenges of her own. In October, she was indicted on mortgage fraud charges tied to a property she owns in Virginia. She pleaded not guilty, and the case was dismissed without trial in November. Subsequent attempts by the Department of Justice to revive the charges have not succeeded.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that Soros plays a behind-the-scenes role in the legal actions brought against him by James, Bragg, and other progressive prosecutors. The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Soros has also indirectly supported Bragg’s rise to office. During Bragg’s 2021 campaign for Manhattan district attorney, Soros donated $1 million to the political action committee of the advocacy group Color of Change, which spent more than $500,000 on mailers, advertisements, and field operations backing Bragg.
In addition, Soros and his family members have contributed $43,150 directly to Bragg since 2021, including $22,500 since June, according to records.
Michael Vachon, a spokesperson for Soros, declined to comment on the donations. The attorney general’s office did not respond to inquiries, and a spokesperson for James’ campaign could not be reached.
