Let’s check in on Nicholas Kristof’s campaign for governor of Oregon. The longtime and now former New York Times columnist’s run recently hit an unexpected snag, after state election officials decided he didn’t meet the three-year residency requirement to qualify. Despite this, Kristof is powering on, hoping the state’s supreme court will throw the decision out on appeal, and he’s continuing to rack up big donations in the meantime.

The last time I wrote about Kristof’s campaign, I noted that $50,000 of his impressive fundraising haul (at the end of December 2021, it was $2.5 million) came from billionaire Melinda Gates, before detailing the oddly close relationship that Kristof and his wife developed with Gates and her now ex-husband, billionaire Microsoft founder Bill. For years, Kristof’s columns were strangely aligned with the Gateses and their many dubious ventures, including school privatization, microloans, and genetic modification as a solution to disease and hunger. The Gateses are immensely and deceptively powerful people, and I suggested it might be significant that one half of the couple was now generously funding what could end up as a successful gubernatorial run.

Well, since then, it’s turned out that it’s not just one half. In a filing made near the end of December, we now know that two weeks after Melinda’s own donation, Bill Gates donated the same amount, $50,000, to Kristof’s campaign. The couple’s divorce has not severed their professional relationship, with the pair affirming their commitment last July to “remain long-term partners and co-chairs” and continue leading the Gates Foundation, which serves as a conduit for their political and investment goals.

Since then, Kristof has seen his coffers filled by several other figures with Gates connections. One is Connie Ballmer, wife of former Microsoft CEO and fellow billionaire Steve Ballmer, who gave Kristof $50,000. Another is Bill Clapp, whose Seattle International Foundation has received $800,000 from the Gates Foundation over the years, and who donated $10,000 to Kristof. (Oregon is one of only five states that has no limits on campaign contributions.)

Puzzlingly, Kristof’s ties to, and now direct financial support from, the Gateses continues to get no scrutiny from either national press or the local media in Oregon, despite what it means for the state of American democracy. The whims of wealthy donors almost always define what does and doesn’t get done by US political elites, let alone two wealthy donors who have a close and quasi-symbiotic relationship with the aspiring politician they’re giving money to.

Add that to the way the Gateses’ financial generosity has often been used to secure their interests — whether that’s protecting pharma profits in a pandemic or securing glowing media coverage for themselves — and there’s more than enough reason to pay close attention to their backing for Kristof’s run.