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Democratic Senate candidates James Talarico and Jon Ossoff are facing scrutiny over significant donations from Reid Hoffman, a billionaire mega-investor with former associations to Jeffrey Epstein, after both accused Republicans of representing the billionaire “Epstein class” over working Americans.
Both Talarico, running in Texas, and Ossoff, running in Georgia, have repeatedly criticized billionaires’ involvement in politics and charged Republicans with being beholden to the “Epstein class” instead of the American people.
Meanwhile, Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn who has previously admitted to spending a night on Epstein’s Caribbean island, has heavily invested in both campaigns. In the Texas Senate race, Hoffman has donated a whopping $11.5 million to the Talarico-aligned super political action committee (PAC), Lone Star Rising, according to the Texas Tribune. The outlet said the billionaire investor sunk $10 million to the PAC in June alone, accounting for nearly 80% of the group’s second-quarter fundraising. In Georgia, Hoffman donated the maximum legal amount, $7,000, to Ossoff’s campaign for the 2025-2026 cycle.
“Democrats like Jon Ossoff and James Talarico vilify corporate billionaires in one breath and accept their cash in the next,” a GOP operative remarked to Fox News Digital, adding, “They’re fueling the same ‘money in politics’ gravy train they claim to oppose.”
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Hoffman has not been charged with any wrongdoing related to his previous association with Epstein.
Their first known meeting was on July 19, 2013, almost five years after he pled guilty in Florida to state charges of soliciting prostitution and procuring a minor for prostitution. According to Massachusetts Institute of Technology records, Hoffman, then a member of the university’s Media Lab Advisory Council, met with Epstein along with other faculty members on campus.
The next year, Hoffman visited Epstein’s private island, Little Saint James, and stayed overnight, the Wall Street Journal reported. Business Insider reported that in a recent podcast appearance Hoffman admitted to staying one night at Epstein’s island as part of an MIT fundraising trip. Regarding his visit, he quipped, “Note to self: Google before going.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that later in 2014, Hoffman sent Epstein ice cream, writing that it was for him or “for the girls.”
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The two continued to maintain contact in the years that followed, with Hoffman and Epstein exchanging emails and Skype calls, according to the Wall Street Journal. Axios reported in 2019 that Hoffman hosted a dinner in 2015 at which Epstein was present along with other notable technology leaders, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel.
The outlet reported that Hoffman apologized for his association with Epstein, saying that “by agreeing to participate in any fundraising activity where Epstein was present, I helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice. For this, I am deeply regretful.”
Meanwhile, Talarico has repeatedly criticized Republicans using the “Epstein class” line. In one interview, he asserted, “The Epstein Class has no place in Texas.”
On the campaign trail, Forbes reported Talarico charging that “the only minority destroying America is the billionaires.” His campaign website asserts that “billionaire mega-donors aren’t just buying yachts and jets — they’re buying power, and they’re using that power to rig our political system.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Lone Star Rising, which has spent millions on pro-Talarico advertising, for comment on Hoffman’s $11.5 million in donations.
JT Ennis, a spokesperson for Talarico’s campaign, remarked to Fox News Digital that “our campaign has no control over contributions to any super PAC,” adding, “federal law prohibits coordination between political campaigns and outside entities.”
Ennis said that “anyone contributing to this movement is supporting a campaign that will tax billionaires more and limit their outsized political influence.”
Meanwhile, he ripped into Talarico’s Republican opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, saying, “The only way to get Big Money out of our politics is to reject politicians like Ken Paxton,” who he accused of “want[ing] corporations and billionaires to decide our elections, not Texans.”
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“While Ken Paxton works to enrich himself and his donors, James will remain the only candidate in this race fighting to ban super PACs, ban corporate PACs, ban congressional stock trading, and tax billionaires so we can fix this broken, corrupt political system,” said Ennis.
Fox News Digital reached out to Paxton’s campaign for comment.
Fox News Digital also reached out to the campaign for Ossoff, who criticized the Trump administration in a news statement earlier this year for having the “wealthiest Cabinet ever.”
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Ossoff remarked in the statement, “We were told that MAGA was for working-class Americans. But this is a government of, by, and for the ultra-rich … this is the Epstein class, ruling our country. They are the elites they pretend to hate.”
On the campaign trail Ossoff has railed against American politics for “running on secret money, corporate money, billionaire money” and accused the Trump administration of taking “American corruption to spectacular new heights.”
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Besides Talarico and Ossoff, Hoffman is also known to have donated the maximum legal amount, $7,000, to the re-election campaign for Sen. Cory Booker, a prominent national Democrat from New Jersey.
Fox News Digital reached out to Booker for comment.
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