How much dark money or outside independent expenditure went toward supporting Walz in recent elections?

1. What concrete numbers the sources provide

OpenSecrets aggregates campaign finance records and notes Walz’s campaigns have raised more than $24 million over his career, and it maintains outside‑spending detail pages for joint tickets or committees that could include Harris/Walz activity ^{[2] [4]}. Local reporting in 2022 cites outside group Alliance for a Better Minnesota running “millions” in advertising in the final weeks to support Walz’s re‑election bid; the Duluth News Tribune reported Walz’s campaign itself spent roughly $3.7 million in a late 2022 reporting period ^[1]. National studies show dark‑money groups spent roughly $2 billion in the 2024 election cycle overall, but those studies do not attribute a specific dollar figure to Walz ^[3].

2. What “dark money” means in these sources

The Brennan Center and investigative outlets use “dark money” to describe spending by groups that do not disclose donors (501(c) nonprofits, some 527s and similar vehicles), and they emphasize that a large portion of reported dark money in 2024 moved into super PACs or was spent in ways that avoid disclosure ^{[3] [5]}. Project Censored and New York Progressive Action Network pieces explain how donor‑advised funds and shadowy charity structures can hide sources and how proposals in Project 2025 could further weaken reporting, illustrating systemic opacity rather than Walz‑specific behavior ^{[5] [6]}.

3. What the records and reporting do not show (limits of available sources)

None of the provided sources give a definitive, itemized total of “dark money” or independent expenditures exclusively for Tim Walz across the most recent election cycles. The national dark‑money totals are large — nearly $2 billion for 2024 reported by the Brennan Center — but that is a nationwide figure and not a Walz‑specific tally ^[3]. OpenSecrets and FollowTheMoney maintain databases and outside‑spending pages where that granular figure could be derived, but the specific dollar amount backing Walz in 2024 or 2022 is not quoted in the material you supplied ^{[2] [7] [4]}.

4. Known examples of outside support for Walz

Journalistic reporting documents at least one outside group, Alliance for a Better Minnesota, running “millions” in ads supporting Walz in 2022, and the campaign reported heavy spending that cycle ^[1]. OpenSecrets provides tools and summary pages for tracking outside spending; those resources are the most direct path to compile a comprehensive number if you want a figure by cycle or by group ^{[2] [4]}.

5. Competing narratives and political context

Conservative outlets and partisan commentators have used recent scandals and audits around Minnesota programs to attack Walz and frame spending and oversight as failures, while Walz and allies point to audits underway and to prior campaign support and governance achievements ^{[8] [9] [10] [11]}. Independent watchdogs focus on the mechanics of hidden giving and regulatory gaps — not on whether Walz personally solicited or benefited improperly from specific dark‑money donors ^{[5] [6] [3]}. Available sources do not mention any definitive linkage of specific dark‑money donor identities to Walz beyond documented outside ad buys like Alliance for a Better Minnesota ^{[1] [2]}.

6. How to get a precise total if you want one

To produce a verifiable, dollar‑accurate total for dark money or independent expenditures that expressly supported Walz, consult the OpenSecrets outside‑spending pages and FollowTheMoney candidate independent‑spending sections for the 2022 and 2024 cycles and extract sums by target candidate/committee; journalists and researchers routinely use those datasets to attribute outside spending cited in news accounts ^{[2] [4] [7]}. The Brennan Center study and Project Censored/NYPAN pieces are useful for context on trends in dark money but won’t substitute for candidate‑level line items ^{[3] [5] [6]}.

Limitations: this account uses only the materials you provided. Those sources document outside spending in general and give some concrete examples (e.g., Alliance for a Better Minnesota running “millions” in 2022) but do not supply a single, comprehensive dollar total of dark‑money independent expenditures for Walz across recent elections ^{[1] [2] [3]}.