University of Virginia’s Phony Nonpartisan Institutions Have Close Ties to Leftist Billionaires
Larry Sabato and Liz Cheney have teamed up to influence the minds of college students entering politics—along with radical billionaires who bankroll Democrats.
The University of Virginia has expanded its tentacles of political influence infused with Trump Derangement Syndrome and false narratives of voter suppression. Leaders and financiers of UVA’s political education institutions push a leftist agenda at this public university—using your tax dollars.
Larry Sabato publishes the “Crystal Ball,” a mainstay in the establishment political world inside the beltway. Sabato, an outspoken leftist, is the director of University of Virginia’s (UVA) Center for Politics. The Center for Politics claims to be non-partisan, yet Sabato’s social media account is filled with anti-Trump rhetoric and false narratives about January 6th.
According to its own About page, the Crystal Ball attempts to predict electoral outcomes:
Our race ratings are based on a number of factors, including electoral history, polling, candidate quality, modeling, and reporting. The Crystal Ball has a solid track record of prediction accuracy over the years and has been recognized by the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Daily Beast designated it as one of the top political sites on the web.
As such, it has become a resource relied upon by mainstream and establishment political insiders.
(Read more: Did Money-Laundering Help Democrats Win Virginia in 2024?)
Never-Trumpers Masquerade as Nonpartisan
In 2021, Sabato signed a “statement of concern” letter calling Republican-led election integrity measures such as voter identification “ anti-democratic.” The letter also called for an end to the filibuster. In 2024, Virginia removed 1,600 illegally registered voters from its rolls—yet Larry Sabato claims “voter fraud is a made-up problem.”
In 2023, the Center for Politics hired Sabato’s friend and fellow never-Trumper Liz Cheney as a professor to shape young minds. Sabato calls Cheney a “model of political courage and leadership.” That model of leadership resulted in the largest defeat of an incumbent congressperson in a primary election in American history.
Sabato is on the advisory board of the new Karsh Institute of Democracy at UVA funded by two far-left billionaires, Bruce and Martha Karsh. In 2021, the Karshes—both UVA alumni—donated $50 million to build the institute. The Karshes have an interest in how higher education “is uniquely able to address growing threats to democracy.”
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz built their entire campaign on the false narrative that Trump represented a “threat to democracy,” while Cheney ran the sham January 6 Committee hearings purportedly to save democracy. Now Sabato and the Karshes have turned that political ploy into an academic endeavor.
Executive director of the Karsh Institute, Melody C. Barnes, has deep ties to leftist politics. She worked for Edward Kennedy, Barack Obama, the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, and the ACLU. She also served as a board member of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Barnes is hardly someone who can be labeled nonpartisan.
The Center for Politics and Karsh Institute of Democracy are non-profit tax-exempt entities. With Sabato, Barnes, and the Karshes at the helm of these organizations, their claim of nonpartisanship doesn’t pass the laugh test.
UVA’s founder, Thomas Jefferson, would be appalled.
Who are Bruce and Martha Karsh?
These California billionaires are not well known. Bruce Karsh is a former attorney and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management—a global investment management firm. Martha Karsh is an attorney and co-founder of an architecture firm. The Karshes bought Harvey Weinstein’s home along with another one next door in New York City for $53.6 million—as a second property. Their primary home is a $60 million estate in Beverly Hills.
In 2023-24 the Karshes gave a whopping 550 donations to Democrats across the nation totaling over $7.5 million. They did not make a single donation to a Republican. Their largest contributions went to Democrat Super PACs charged with gaining a majority for the Democrats in the House and Senate. They gave nearly $2 million to the Harris Victory Fund plus individual donations to the Harris campaign. The rest of their money was spread out to a variety of Democrat senate and congressional candidates.
Both Bruce and Marth Karsh serve on the advisory board of the Institute of Democracy so of course their leftist views are bound to influence the work of the organization. They made the “Equity Center” a part of the Institute to identify and rectify “past and present injustices” so they “can build a more equitable future.” They seek to “redress racial and economic inequity in university communities”—phrases you would find in a Marxist playbook.
The Karsh Institute of Democracy falls under the umbrella of the UVA—a public school partially funded with taxpayer dollars. Just another example of the Lefts’ influences on the next generation—perhaps a better name for the program would be the “Institute of Democrats.” The Virginia Department of Education should review whether taxpayer dollars are being used to further political agendas at the University.
One thing is certain: we should stop thinking of Larry Sabato as a non-partisan arbiter of fair play and accurate analysis in politics.
(Read more: Did a Loudoun Co. School Board Member Break Federal Law?)
