Conservative mega donor David Koch, who along with his brother Charles has been one of the biggest forces in GOP campaigns this decade, died Friday at the age of 79.
The Koch family has long been involved in right-wing politics: Fred Koch, the founder of Koch Industries and the father of David and Charles, was also a founding member of the anti-communist far-right John Birch Society. In 1980, David Koch ran for office for the first and only time when he became the Libertarian Party’s vice presidential candidate, but the ticket took just 1% of the nationwide popular vote. Four years later, he founded Citizens for a Sound Economy, a political organization that promoted his business-friendly views within the GOP.
The group ended up splintering in 2004, and Koch’s half became Americans for Prosperity. But it was only in 2010, after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted campaign finance laws with their Citizens United decision, that the Koch brothers and AFP became one of the most important players in American politics.
The Koch brothers and their wealthy allies poured untold millions into AFP, Freedom Partners, and other conservative groups, which in turn spent heavily on outside spending to aid Republican congressional candidates. In 2012 alone, 17 groups in the Koch’s network raised $407 million. Democratic campaigns tried to make the Kochs and dark money a major issue in both the 2010 and 2014 elections, but both those cycles still were disasters for Team Blue.
Despite their wide reach, the Kochs still lost some important intra-party battles. David Koch publicly supported then-Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s presidential bid, but Walker dropped out in the fall of 2015. The brothers also had a tense relationship with Donald Trump that continued after he reached the White House. While David Koch reportedly attended Trump’s election night party, Trump by 2018 was tweeting that their network was “a total joke in real Republican circles.” Charles Koch said earlier this year that he wouldn’t spend to help Trump win re-election, though he still would aid other GOP candidates.
While the Koch brothers were usually talked about as a unit, biographer Daniel Schulman wrote that it was Charles Koch who was the dominant partner in their political and business interests. But David Koch, unlike his introverted brother, was happy to socialize with politicians and reporters, and he was interviewed by Barbara Walters in 2014. Last year, though, Koch Industries announced that David Koch was stepping aside from business and politics because of his health.
Want more great elections coverage like this? Sign up for our free daily newsletter, the Morning Digest.