A right-wing influencer known for her commentary and reporting on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was revealed to have donated to President Joe Biden in 2019—sending some right-wingers online spiraling.
Federal Election Commission records show that Julie Kelly gave $2,800—the maximum at the time—to Biden in 2019.
But that is not the only donation to Democrats she has made.
In 2016, Kelly gave the maximum $2,700 in support of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. And in the past two decades, she has given to six Democratic congressional candidates including Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and the late Harry Reid. She also gave $500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2010.
The records do show, however, a sprinkling of Republican donations, including $1,000 to Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) in 2019, $500 to Adam Kinzinger in 2012, and $1,000 to the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2003.
Right-wing critics think the donations undercut Kelly’s credibility in their circles, while others have come to her defense because of the work she has done.
Kelly is a former food writer turned political commentator, who amassed a large following covering trials of those convicted as part of Jan. 6. She is the author of January 6: How Democrats Used the Capitol Protest to Launch a War on Terror Against the Political Right and is one of the top proponents of the right-wing claim that Jan. 6 was instigated by the federal government to frame and round up supporters of former President Donald Trump.
Kelly often appears as a vocal defender of those convicted for their actions on Jan. 6 on right-wing media.
Some have also attributed the motivations for the donations to the fact that she has a Democratic husband, a prolific donor himself (though this is pure speculation).
One of the chief critics calling out Kelly is Kyle Seraphin, who pushed that line. There is no evidence of anything illegal or untoward about the donations, though Kelly herself has refused to answer critics’ specific questions about the contributions.
“I owe you nothing,” she said in response to one person asking for confirmation the donations were untrue or an explanation.
“No,” she similarly replied to someone else who asked why she donated to the “very people responsible for imprisoning the J6ers.”
Kelly dismissed the controversy as a bad faith attempt to discredit her work about Jan. 6.
“Few people know what we went through during early years of exposing J6,” she said. “It was a huge risk personally and professionally. Now some late comers and suspicious actors want to discredit me and my family. Probably to stop from reporting the truth. Shame on them. And I won’t stop.”
The unfolding drama has left right-wingers picking sides, with prominent posters such as Catturd slamming Kelly’s critics as not giving “AF about saving this country.”
“We know the people who are patriots who’ve never wavered,” he wrote. “There’s a bunch of snakes trying to divide our America First movement that have changed candidates like the wind every few months. They’re attacking all of us right now. We see you. You don’t fool us.”
Remarked another X user: “Julie’s husband is a top Illinois lobbyist. Illinois is dominated by Democrats. Of course, they donate to Democrats. So did Trump. How does this change the fact [Julie] has done more than anyone to expose the Biden-Kamala political persecution of J6 defendants?”
“Moreover, [Julie] has spent a large amount of her own time and money—for over 3.5 years—covering these court proceedings in DC, Florida, and all over America,” he added. “This has greatly benefited Trump and his J6 supporters, as evidenced by the Supreme Court’s two J6 rulings.”
But some other right-wingers were not jumping to Kelly’s defense following the contribution revelations.
“I am just going to assume that anyone defending Julie Kelly is a Democrat,” swiped one person.
“If I was being falsely accused of donating to Democrats and I was completely innocent, I wouldn’t be acting like Julie Kelly is right now,” reacted another person.
“In the past 5 years, the amount of money I’ve donated to Democrats was zero. However, if you go past 10 years, that amount would be also zero,” someone else said in a dig aimed at Kelly. “Nonetheless, if you dig further in the past 15 years, you’ll find that I’ve donated zero dollars to Democrats. Finally, if you look at the past 20 years, you’ll come to the same conclusion. I’ve also never ever voted for, caterer to, cheered on, or promoted a Democrat. The last time I sucked up to Democrats was never.”
Another person went as far as to posit that Kelly “was actually a left-winger trying to make the right look bad.”
The controversy seems to originally stem from a report published Monday by “South Cook News” detailing residents of Orland Park residents who have donated to Vice President Kamala Harris.
A contribution listed for Kelly in the piece appeared to match the one described in the report. However, that was the 2019 donation made to Biden—not to Harris. The outlet noted that Biden’s cash became Harris’ when he dropped out of the 2024 race, though there’s no way to discern what specific donations were used in 2020 and what rolled over.
It is technically untrue to say that there are records of Kelly giving money to Harris, which many critics online appeared to interpret the report as saying.
Kelly has dismissed the report as fake news.
In response to someone sharing that interpretation, Kelly hit back: “Can you read even a fake newspaper?”
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