This is a collaboration with The Lever, a reader-supported investigative news outlet that holds accountable the people and corporations manipulating the levers of power.
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One of the top officials for an establishment-friendly political network playing a major role in Democratic primaries this election cycle also helms an astroturf lobbying group representing the interests of Wall Street banks and credit card companies.
Peter Kauffmann is listed as vice chair of VoteVets, a Democratic Party–aligned group that primarily supports military veterans running for office, and as treasurer of Vet Voice Foundation, an affiliated philanthropic arm.
But Kauffmann has also been acting as the chief spokesperson for a group called the Small Business Payments Alliance. The lobbying operation claims to represent the interests of ordinary small businesses, but it is fighting to protect one of the largest costs most small businesses face: swipe fees on every transaction at retail stores, charged by the credit card duopoly Visa and Mastercard.
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Kauffmann’s dual role is jarring, given VoteVets’ general track record of supporting efforts to protect people from financial schemes, particularly veterans and service members. VoteVets and its allies have vocally opposed the Trump administration’s gutting of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and highlighted the impact of consumer-protection deregulation on military families going back to President Donald Trump’s first term.
VoteVets’ campaign arm has a more prominent function, however: to serve as a stalking horse for establishment candidates in primary elections while maintaining an image as an independent and trusted source marshaling veteran support. Having an attachment to big banks and credit card firms could diminish that reputation.
In a statement, Kauffmann said that the lobbying group he runs “is a coalition of small business owners working to fight harmful policies being pushed by the nation’s largest corporate megastores.” He likened the Small Business Payments Alliance’s support from the credit card industry, which he acknowledged, to other groups’ support from big retailers. “The difference is that SBPA actively works to protect small businesses,” he concluded.
VoteVets did not respond to a request for comment to clarify Kauffmann’s role at the organization.
Veterans for Billionaires
VoteVets’ political action committee has raised over $20 million this year from a host of billionaire donors and used its war chest to intervene in Democratic primaries, often to support more moderate candidates over progressives.
That includes spending $10 million in the Iowa Senate primary this year to boost state Rep. Josh Turek, who is not a veteran, over state Sen. Zach Wahls, who was endorsed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). VoteVets then dropped $1 million to support former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin in his primary challenge against 14-term incumbent Rep. John Larson in Connecticut’s First Congressional District. As was the case in both those primaries, VoteVets frequently backs the same candidates as a new dark-money political network, The Bench, which shares many of the same donors.
Other VoteVets candidates this year include Rebecca Bennett in New Jersey and Cait Conley in New York, both prized establishment recruits with military backgrounds, as well as reach candidates Zach Dembo in Kentucky and Nancy Lacore in South Carolina. The organization lost a swing-seat race in Michigan, backing former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam, who finished third in a race won by progressive organizer Will Lawrence.
There is one more VoteVets investment yet to play out on the primary calendar: It has spent over $1 million supporting Maura Sullivan, who is competing in the September 8 primary for New Hampshire’s First Congressional District to replace Rep. Chris Pappas, who is running for U.S. Senate.
All of these candidates have similar profiles: military experience and moderate politics.
In some races, namely the Iowa Senate primary, the group has appeared to act as a pass-through entity for party leadership to support the Democratic establishment’s favored candidates. Both House Majority PAC, controlled by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Senate Majority PAC, run by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, have funneled money through VoteVets.
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“I’m not aware of a single veteran who fought for an American democracy where billionaires, corporations, and shady interests funnel dark money into TV ads to buy politicians,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the advocacy and campaign support group Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
“The Claims They Make Are Blatantly False”
Kauffmann lists his affiliation with VoteVets on the page for his consulting firm, Bluejacket Strategies, where he’s represented a range of clients, from labor groups to large corporations like CVS.
That includes the Small Business Payments Alliance. The ostensible grassroots group pitches itself as a voice for small business, but its website says that it’s “a project of the Electronic Payment Coalition,” a lobbying vehicle funded by the credit card industry.
The group’s main advocacy work has been devoted to defeating the Credit Card Competition Act, a bill that aims to break up Visa and Mastercard’s duopoly by forcing credit card issuers to provide merchants with competitor payment processing networks so they can choose the option with lower fees.
Despite earning bipartisan support and even Trump’s endorsement, the bill has consistently failed to pass, amid an avalanche of lobbying from Wall Street groups like the Electronic Payments Coalition (EPC) and Small Business Payments Alliance. The EPC, the top credit card networks, and the biggest credit card issuers have spent more than $200 million on politics overall since 2023, including for Trump’s inaugural committee, nearly in campaign contributions, and $165 million in lobbying on Capitol Hill. Maintaining the status quo on swipe fees is among their top issues; the Credit Card Competition Act is the only bill mentioned on the group’s website.
The from the credit card lobby include Reps. Andy Barr (R-KY) and French Hill (R-AR), leading Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees the swipe fee legislation. Barr is likely to replace Mitch McConnell in the U.S. Senate.
The Small Business Payments Alliance has repeatedly flown small-business owners from across the country to Washington to lobby against the Credit Card Competition Act and delivered candy to congressional offices around holidays on multiple occasions. It has spent over $5 million in digital ads attacking the legislation. The organization’s website includes several slickly produced testimonials from small-business owners about the importance of credit card access, while intimating that the Credit Card Competition Act would destroy that access and ruin cash back or airline mile rewards programs, something the bill text doesn’t mention at all.
A new from progressive advocacy group Demand Progress finds that many Small Business Payments Alliance members have received funding through grants and other programs directly from Mastercard, JPMorgan Chase, and Capital One. Another member is backed by a private equity firm.
“The claims they [the Small Business Payments Alliance] make are blatantly false … just about any small business is losing far more money in terms of costs to credit cards than they could ever possibly recoup in rewards, unless of course they’re getting these payoffs on the side,” said Doug Kantor, the general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores.
Credit card swipe fees, squeezing merchants and consumers alike, totaled over $157 billion in 2025. The rates have risen dramatically in recent years, raking in billions of dollars in profits for credit card companies and the banks that host those cards. It has become one of the biggest business costs other than labor for some merchants.
“That is 3 to 5 percent of our sales every month,” said Dan Jacobs, a chef and co-owner of two restaurants in Milwaukee. “3 to 5 percent is exactly what we’re hoping to take home most days … this sometimes is the difference between us taking home no money and taking home a little bit of money.” Recently, Jacobs added a 5 percent surcharge to customer bills to cover swipe fees.
“Our swipe fees are our swipe fees because they are set down by Visa, Mastercard, American Express,” Jacobs added. “There’s no way to fight them.”
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