Meet Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias, who wears GOP scorn 'like a badge of honor'
Attorney Marc Elias stands outside the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix in August 2016, after a hearing for a lawsuit against Arizona over voting rights. (Photo by David Jolkovski for the Washington Post via Getty Images)
Updated: Even his detractors call Democratic lawyer Marc Elias one of the toughest election lawyers in the country.
“In his three-decade career,” the New York Times reports in a profile, Elias “has arguably done more than any single person outside government to shape the Democratic Party and the rules under which all campaigns and elections in the United States are conducted.”
Supporters celebrate Elias’ many victories, including his fight against efforts to overturn the 2020 election and two significant decisions last year by the U.S. Supreme Court, the New York Times says. This year, Elias “has been in the middle” of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign’s response to dozens of Republican lawsuits challenging voting rules.
“My team of lawyers is better than the GOP’s,” Elias recently bragged, as recounted by the Hill. “And we’re ready to beat them again in 2024.”
Elias was similarly combative when Republicans recently targeted him in an ad campaign highlighting his work to keep third-party candidates off ballots. The campaign portrayed Elias as a hypocrite for trying to eliminate voter choice, according to the New York Times. Elias responded in a social media post.
“Republicans hate me because I stand up to them and fight. I wear their scorn like a badge of honor,” Elias wrote.
Elias grew up suburban New York, according to the New York Times profile. His father was a small-business owner and both parents were “New Deal Democrats,” he once told Roll Call. He has a law degree and a master’s degree in political science from Duke University.
Elias joined Perkins Coie after law school and became leader of its political law practice in 2009. In that role, the New York Times says, he “expanded its team of lawyers, its client roster and its profits while becoming increasingly influential with key Democratic leaders.”
Elias left Perkins Coie and formed the Elias Law Group in 2021 following controversy over his involvement in the hiring of opposition research company Fusion GPS. That company compiled a dossier with “largely debunked” allegations about former President Donald Trump’s Russia connections, the New York Times says. The Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign paid for the research without their knowledge.
Elias took more than 40 Perkins Coie lawyers with him to form his new law firm.
Firm members helped achieve two Supreme Court victories. In one, the Supreme Court struck down a congressional map that diluted Black voting strength in Alabama. In the other, the Supreme Court rejected the “independent state legislature” theory contending that state legislatures have the exclusive power to regulate congressional elections. The high court ruled that state courts have the power to review congressional maps created by state legislatures.
In a controversial move in January, the Elias Law Group asked the Federal Election Commission to allow a political action committee funded by billionaire George Soros to coordinate with Democratic campaigns and party committees in Texas for voter turnout efforts.
The FEC approved the petition. It wasn’t long before the Trump campaign used the opinion to coordinate with groups funded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and other wealthy donors, according to the New York Times.
One critic is Tom Moore, a former chief of staff for a Democratic member of the FEC who opposed the petition.
“Opening the money faucets up as wide as they go strikes me as a bad idea for Democrats because Republicans just have a bigger faucet,” Moore told the New York Times.
Elias responded to the New York Times in a statement.
“I am proud of my record in fighting back against Republican voter suppression, election subversion and gerrymandering in court,” he said.
See also:
Perkins Coie hired company that compiled Trump dossier
Updated Nov. 4 at 12:20 p.m. to move information regarding sanctions to a “See also” list.
