“CHORUS”? DEMOCRATIC PARTY HACKS OR INDEPENDENT PRO-DEMOCRACY CREATORS?

Journalist Taylor Lorenz’s blistering article, “A Dark Money Group Is Secretly Funding High-Profile Democratic Influencers,” has ignited yet another feud among white liberals and progressives. Each side accuses the other of being either “independent” or simply shilling for the Democratic Party.

At the center of the storm is CHORUS—an initiative aimed at boosting Democrats online funded by the liberal "dark money" group The Sixteen Thirty Fund. According to Lorenz, the program offers influencers up to $8,000 a month to push the Democratic Party line, on the condition that they remain secretive and accept restrictions on their content. Contracts sent to participants required nondisclosure of payments and imposed limits on what political content they could produce.

In response, Brian Tyler Cohen, one of the founders of the effort, defended the program. He insists that Chorus is an “incubator program for creators, designed to build a pro-democracy ecosystem by providing training, workshops, and financial stability so participants can focus on content creation full-time.” Cohen accused Lorenz of hypocrisy, alleging she herself has ties to dark money—an accusation she flatly denied. When critics push back, Cohen often resorts to the tired line that they are “helping the right.” He even claimed that Lorenz’s reporting only benefits figures like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, pointing to clips of them discussing her work.

This fight is merely a continuing reflection of the ongoing controversy between establishment Democrats and those who would solidify the more centrist approach to 2026 and 2028. Finding political relief in Galvin Newsome, Peter Buttigieg etc. and trying to create content creators that will tow the party line. On the other end those in the progressive wing who maintain the so-called “centrist” are just anti-democratic establishment enablers looking to control the message of the party to ensure it does not move left. A macrocosm of the battle in NYC between the Cuomo-Adams-Sliwa vs. Zohran Mamdani.

As a lifelong Latina/o activist, my first question was the same as always: how many Latina/o creators were actually part of this effort—or even invited to participate? With 65 million Latina/os in the U.S., it is striking how often we are excluded from these white-led, white-controlled “pro-democracy” projects. The internal wars of white liberals and progressives rage on, while our communities remain sidelined—only pulled in later, often as tokens, and urged to pick a side in a fight that was never ours to begin with.

Maybe that’s for the best. But I always keep an eye on these battles entre los blancos, because more often than not, it’s our communities that feel the consequences once the dust settles.