League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund (LCV Victory Fund)

LCV Victory Fund is a proponent of weather-dependent energy subsidies, claiming that they are beneficial economically and environmentally, and it opposes deregulating conventional energy production. ³

Background

Founded in 2010, the League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund is a super PAC that uses environmental issues to campaign in support of Democratic Party candidates. ^{1 2} During the 2024 election cycle, it reported its sister organization League of Conservation Voters (LCV) donated $48.6 million, making up 57.7 percent of total donations received. ⁴

LCV Victory Fund campaigns in support of candidates based on environmental issues and adds that environmentalist policies are also beneficial to ethnic minorities and “low-wealth” communities. It targets ethnic minorities and low-income individuals to vote in support of environmentalist candidates and policy issues by claiming they are disproportionately victimized by allegedly neglected environmental issues. ¹

Climate Vote Project

Climate Vote 2024 was a project of the League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund that campaigned in support of then-President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and subsequently presidential candidate Kamala Harris and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz during the 2024 presidential election. The project expressed support for the Democratic presidential candidates as it claimed they ensure “pro-environment leadership,” and it opposed Donald Trump and any prospective Republican presidential candidates as it claimed they would only serve the interests of conventional energy industries. ⁵

Climate Vote 2024 also funded Democratic state-level, congressional, and gubernatorial candidates. The project reported that it modeled its campaign strategy after its Climate Vote 2020 campaigns that it reported targeted 1.58 million people in battleground states and claimed increased the Democratic vote by 5.6 percent. It also reported that its Climate Vote 2022 campaign successfully supported 135 federal candidates and 975 state-level candidates. ⁵

Dirty Dozen

The League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund’s 2024 Dirty Dozen campaign highlighted 12 federal candidates it claimed were the “worst environmental candidates.” It also included “a Dirty Dozen in the States” campaign that focuses on state-level candidates. LCV Victory Fund’s 2024 Dirty Dozen candidates included then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, as well as Senate candidates Kari Lake (R-AZ), Bernie Moreno (R-OH), Dave McCormick (R-PA), Eric Hovde (R-WI), Tim Sheehy (R-MT) and Sam Brown (R-NV) and House of Representatives candidates Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Michelle Steel (R-CA), Yvette Herrell (R-NM), and Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY). ⁶

LCV Victory Fund’s Dirty Dozen campaign in opposition to Donald Trump criticized then-former President Trump for opposing over $1 trillion in existing weather-dependent energy subsidies due to the alleged economic stimulus they caused. It also criticized Trump for supporting conventional energy production, arguing conventional energy endangers lives. ³

LCV Victory Fund campaigned against Trump by citing his opposition to the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act and his opposition to wind energy as he called both a “scam.” It also referred to Trump as a “dirty energy dictator” for campaigning on tax cuts for the oil industry, and criticized Trump for supporting the elimination of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations. ³

Financials

During the 2024 election cycle, the League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund raised $84.3 million and spent $84.2 million, including $46.6 million in independent expenditures. ⁷ Of its independent expenditures, $33.4 million was spent on campaigns supporting Democratic candidates and $13.2 million was spent on opposing Republican candidates. It did not spend any money opposing Democratic candidates or supporting Republican candidates. ²

LCV Victory Fund’s top donors during the 2024 election cycle included the League of Conservation Voters, which donated $48.6 million; America Votes, which donated $7.5 million; and Save Our Home Planet Action, which donated $1.1 million. ⁴

LCV Victory Fund’s largest outside expenditures included $11.4 million supporting then-Vice President Kamala Harris, $2.8 million supporting Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), $2.3 million supporting then-Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), and $2 million opposing now-Senator Dave McCormick (R-PA), Casey’s opponent in Pennsylvania’s senate race. Other notable expenditures included $1.2 million opposing Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and $710,939 supporting Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. ⁸

People

As of 2024, Titi Sonekan was the treasurer of the League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund and the senior vice president of finance for the League of Conservation Voters. She was also a member of the female executive advocacy group Chief and a financial consultant for Infusion CPAs & Advisors. She previously worked as the chief financial officer for the United Nations Foundation and as controller for St. John’s Community Services. ⁹