PORTLAND, Maine — A 2022 district attorney race in Cumberland County was dramatically reshaped by outside spending no candidate saw coming, according to a recent report from The Washington Post. The article details how a four-week barrage of ads funded by a political committee bankrolled by billionaire philanthropist George Soros began appearing just “about three weeks before the 2022 Democratic primary,” blindsiding both then-District Attorney Jonathan Sahrbeck and his challenger Jacqueline Sartoris.
The Soros-backed PAC dropped $384,000 — five times the combined funds raised by Sahrbeck and Sartoris.
Soros, a former hedge-fund manager, has spent the past decade supporting district attorney candidates who favor rehabilitation over incarceration, oppose cash bail for minor crimes and target police misconduct. Maine law prohibits coordination between candidates and PACs, underscoring that Sartoris had no control over the messaging — a point raised by critics of outside spending’s influence.
The mailers and ads applied immediate pressure on Sartoris. Her father — a Republican opposed to Soros’s agenda — urged her to repudiate the support. She eventually aired a radio spot distancing herself from the PAC and quietly added the Serenity Prayer to her script “to remind herself to ‘accept the things I cannot change.’”
Sahrbeck blamed the ads for his defeat in the primary, and Sartoris said she still wonders whether she won because of voter support or because of Soros’s money. “You go from thinking you are driving your own car to realizing you got the play wheel,” she said.
That Maine race is just one of more than 60 district attorney campaigns nationwide influenced by Soros-linked spending in the past decade; the PAC reportedly has won 77% of those elections.
Supporters argue Soros’s transparent spending has empowered reform-minded prosecutors, many from underrepresented backgrounds, to win races they otherwise could not afford to contest. His spokespeople say the goal is to prove that justice and public safety can coexist without relying on a “tough-on-crime” approach.
Opponents counter that heavy outside spending in down-ballot races warps democracy, leaving voters with fewer genuine choices and granting outsized power to wealthy donors. Critics warn that when billionaires dictate who prosecutes crime, the criminal justice system reflects personal ideology rather than community needs.
Soros’s influence began around 2014 when, amid a national reckoning on policing and criminal justice, his network started backing reform-oriented prosecutors. According to the Post, his super-PAC investments have reshaped what it means to be a district attorney in many parts of the country — elevating first-time candidates, including the first Black or female D.A.s in several counties.
At the same time, the spending surge has triggered backlash, with conservative donors mounting counter-campaigns and some liberal prosecutors associated with Soros losing reelection bids.
Despite now being 95 and formally retired, Soros’s political influence endures through the super-PAC and organizational network run by his son, who continues to chart the course for district attorney campaigns nationwide.
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