U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur receives funding from donors who want to ‘defund the police’

Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur has received thousands in campaign contributions from donors who support the “defund the police” movement.

The Democratic congresswoman, who is running for reelection in Ohio’s Republican-leaning 9th Congressional District, also has a history of voting against legislation designed to support law enforcement and voting for efforts to eliminate qualified immunity.

Kaptur voted against providing funding to the Department of Homeland Security and ending the government shutdown in November 2025. The congresswoman also voted against the Thin Blue Line Act, legislation that sought to add the murder of local and state police officers as an aggravating factor for a jury to consider when deciding on the death penalty for a defendant in 2017.

Kaptur voted for both the 2020 and 2021 versions of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The legislation would have lowered the criminal intent standard for convicting a law enforcement officer in a federal prosecution and limited the use of qualified immunity as a defense in civil actions.

Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine that protects state and local officials from civil liability when they act in good faith in accordance with the law.

The Fraternal Order of Police has said that efforts to abolish qualified immunity can discourage potential recruits from pursuing careers in law enforcement and that, in states like Colorado, where the legislature eliminated qualified immunity in 2021, officers retired early or moved to other states to find work.

Kaptur is endorsed by Planned Parenthood Action Fund and has received $13,000 in donations from the organization since 2016, according to Federal Election Commission data. The fund has said that they support the “defund the police” movement and referred to law enforcement as “forces that brutalize Black people” in a 2020 social media post.

The congresswoman has also received $19,500 in donations from members of George Soros’ family since 2022, according to data from the FEC.

Fox News reported that, in 2021, Soros’ political organization, The Foundation to Promote Open Society, gave $35 million to groups supporting the “defund the police” movement, including a database that tracks donations to police department foundations and unions.

Fox also reported that Soros’ organization donated $500,000 to both a ballot initiative to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a public safety agency and to the Equity PAC to oppose the city of Austin “unnecessarily” increasing the “hiring of new police officers.”

“Marcy Kaptur continues to attack law enforcement while cashing checks from defund the police groups,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Zach Bannon said. “It’s clear that Kaptur would rather chase applause from the far left than support the brave men and women in law enforcement.”

Kaptur will face Republican Derek Merrin, a former state representative, in the midterm election in November.

District 9 leans Republican by three points and also includes the city of Toledo, an area that deals with gang violence.

The Toledo Police Department’s gang task force told WTOL 11 that 30 to 37 gangs called the city home in 2022.

The department also said that members of the public should be aware of the gang territories so that they know what areas to stay away from, especially at night.

The Toledo police arrested two men in December and January who were wanted by authorities in Michigan for a shooting that killed one person and injured four others, according to The Blade of Toledo.

Ohio.News previously reported that Kaptur received $13,000 from Equality PAC, a political action committee that supports “gender-affirming care” for children, between 2022 and 2024.