(2025-08-03) The Mothership Vortex An Investigation Into The Firm At The Heart Of The Democratic Spam Machine

The Mothership Vortex: An Investigation Into the Firm at the Heart of the Democratic Spam Machine. The digital deluge is a familiar annoyance for anyone on a Democratic party fundraising list. It's a relentless cacophony of bizarre texts and emails, each one more urgent than the last....an analysis of the official FEC filings tells a very different story. The fundraising model is not a brutally effective tool for the party; it is a financial vortex that consumes the vast majority of every dollar it raises.

after documenting the spam tactics in a previous article, I told myself I’d just take a quick look to see who was behind them and where the money was going.

The illusion of a sprawling grassroots movement, with its dozens of different PAC names, quickly gave way to a much simpler and more alarming reality. It only required pulling on a single thread—tracing who a few of the most aggressive PACs were paying—to watch their entire manufactured world unravel. What emerged was not a diverse network of activists, but a concentrated ecosystem built to serve the firm at its center: Mothership Strategies.

To understand Mothership's central role, one must understand its origins. The firm was founded in 2014 by senior alumni of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC): its former digital director, Greg Berlin, and deputy digital director, Charles Starnes.

This model, sometimes called "churn and burn," prioritizes short-term revenue over long-term donor relationships.

They became the operational heart of a sprawling nexus of interconnected political action committees, many of which they helped create and which now serve as their primary clients. These are not a diverse collection of grassroots groups; they are a tightly integrated network that functions primarily to funnel funds to Mothership.

Their names are likely familiar from the very texts and emails that flood inboxes: Progressive Turnout Project, Stop Republicans, and End Citizens United to name a few.

The relationship between the firm and this network is cemented by blatant self-dealing.

An examination of the money flowing through the Mothership network reveals a system designed not for political impact, but for enriching the consultants who operate it.

Since 2018, this core network of Mothership-linked PACs has raised approximately $678 million from individual donors. $159 million was paid directly to Mothership Strategies for consulting fees, accounting for the majority of the $282 million Mothership has been paid by all its clients combined.

The remaining hundreds of millions disappeared into a maze of self-reported categories: $150 million to consulting/fundraising, $70 million to salaries and payroll. There are some disbursements to what seem to be legitimate advocacy and organizing–for instance Progressive Turnout Project reports paying Shawmut Services $19 million for canvassing. However, most of the unclassifiable expenditures appear to be administrative costs or media buys that feed back into the fundraising machine itself.

My analysis of the network's FEC disbursements reveals that, at most, $11 million of the $678 million raised from individuals has made its way to candidates, campaigns, or the national party committees.

This represents a fundraising efficiency rate of just 1.6 percent.

This parasitic ecosystem could not thrive without the tacit approval of the Democratic establishment

Of the paltry $11 million that makes it to campaigns, approximately half goes to the DNC, DCCC, and DSCC. This provides the party with a trickle of revenue and plausible deniability, allowing it to benefit from the fundraising without taking direct responsibility for the deceptive tactics

The firm's client list extends far beyond the PAC network to include the party's own heavyweights, like the House Majority PAC, and high-profile, establishment-backed candidates such as former DNC Chair Jaime Harrison. The distinction between the party and this network dissolves with one final fact: the Democratic establishment itself is a client, actively hiring the firm at the heart of the vortex.

Every fabricated deadline, every manipulative text, every email screaming that democracy will end without your $15—each one burns through something more valuable than money: trust.

when consultants pocket $282 million, it reveals a system working exactly as designed—just not for Democrats.

Recognize that Democratic donors deserve the same honesty the party demands from everyone else.
The party faces a choice. Continue feeding the vortex, or shut it down.