Corporate PACs Dump $410k To Save Democrat Who Voted Against Millionaires Tax

Big business has spent a jaw dropping $410,000 in independent expenditures to defend Rep. Amy Walen (D-Kirkland) against progressive challenger Jessica Forsythe. That’s on top of hundreds of corporate donations padding the stunning $395,000 her campaign has raised itself. 

Walen earned big business’s loyalty as one of the handful of Democrats to vote against the Millionaires Tax last session, arguably against the will of her constituents who broadly support taxing the rich to fund government programs. And with just 17 votes tipping Forsythe into victory in the primary, progressive voters in Bellevue, Kirkland, and Redmond need to take the November election very seriously or risk corporate interests buying Walen a seat for two more years. 

Walen has represented the 48th legislative district in the State House since 2019. In that time, she’s made a reputation for herself as a moderate, corporate aligned Democrat by rejecting landmark progressive wins such as rent stabilization, a bill to give striking workers unemployment benefits, and perhaps most glaring, the Millionaires Tax. 

Walen wrote in an op-ed for the Seattle Times that “Washington needs an income tax, but we need to do it with our residents, not to them.”

However, as The Burner previously reported, the concept of taxing the rich may actually be more popular with Walen’s constituents than Walen herself. In a 2024 uncontested race, Walen scored a clean 95.7% of the vote. But when she ran for an open seat in the State Senate in 2025 against a more progressive candidate, Vandana Slatter, Walen only managed to scoop up 40.7% of the vote, even with substantial financial backing from big business. 

This makes Walen, by the numbers, less popular than taxing the rich in her district. When the same right-wing forces targeting the Millionaires Tax this year asked 48th legislative district voters to repeal or defend the capital gains tax in 2024, a clear majority — 63% —  approved taxing the rich. 

Whether or not the Millionaires Tax specifically will be as popular with her constituents will be better quantified in November, but big business has very transparently put a dollar amount on her loyalty on the issue: About $410,000 in an independent expenditure and at least a third of her campaign’s $395,000 haul. And that’s a fuckton of money to pour into a house seat. 

Scanning through her campaign’s coffers, much of it comes from a business or business associations, particularly insurance companies, banks, and the energy sector. Walen’s got max donations from Amazon, Microsoft, T-Mobile, AirBnB, JPMorgan, Sabey Corporation, Goodman Real Estate and other similar donors. As for individual donors, Walen’s supporters include alleged rapist and former state Senator Joe Fain, former Seattle City Council President Sara Nelson, and State Senator-turned-Amazon policy director Guy Palumbo.

The IE side paints a similar picture of Walen supporters. (Reminder: IEs allow businesses, organizations, and individuals can donate an unlimited amount of money to a separate campaign that supports a candidate but cannot coordinate with that candidate)

Ahead of the primary the Jackson Legacy Fund, a PAC that supports business-friendly Democrats, threw about $38,000 behind Walen. Citizens For Progress (an affiliate of the Jobs PAC that’s funded by big oil, the real estate industry, Amazon and other corporate interests) shelled out $56,000 on pro-Walen mail and cable ads before August as well. This month, Citizens For Progress dropped another $34,500 to campaign for Walen and the National Association of Realtors Fund threw down $68,000.

But her biggest supporter as of yesterday is a new corporate PAC known as Washington Needs To Compete. After she came in second to a progressive challenger, Washington Needs To Compete spent $98,000 supporting Walen. Just yesterday, the PAC dropped another $87,000 for their corporate candidate. 

Washington Needs To Compete spun up early last month and has already raised more than $7 million, making it one of the most powerful PACs on the state-level scene this year. That $7 million consists of $3 million from Microsoft, another million from T-Mobile, $250,000 from Microsoft President Brad Smith, $250,000 from former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and other wealthy and corporate donors. 

The PAC’s contribution to Walen appears to be its first move. When it first filed, some political watchers thought the PAC may be a big business’s vehicle to support the campaign to repeal the millionaires tax without tarnishing any company’s brand by directly funding Let’s Go Washington, which is running the repeal and a few, incredibly toxic anti-LGBTQ initiatives. But according to the Washington Observer, this PAC is “in it long haul and may invest sparsely this year.” That would fit the theory that corporate interests promised Democrat lawmakers they wouldn’t fight their millionaires tax so long as they didn’t have to face a corporate payroll tax. 

On the financial side, there’s really no contest between Walen and Forsythe. Walen’s candidacy is backed by twice as much money as Forsythe’s between the actual campaign and IEs. Most of outside spending on Forsythe’s behalf comes from the New Direction PAC, a usual suspect for electing progressives that derives most of its funds from labor unions. But voters don’t like corporate interests telling them what’s best for them — it didn’t help Walen in her bid for State Senate, that’s for sure!