• Heir to the Taco Bell fortune
• Chair of the Democracy Alliance, with a history of involvement in such leftwing enterprises as America Coming Together and the Fund for America

A native of Orange County, California, Rob McKay is the son of Robert McKay Sr., a Sherman Oaks architect who, in the early 1960s, was hired by Glenn Bell as president of what had become the thriving Taco Bell franchise. The elder McKay helped the company become a national chain and eventually sold his 10% share to PepsiCo, Inc. in 1978 for an estimated $13 million.

Robert McKay, Sr. was politically conservative, but his son has used his inheritance from the father’s Taco Bell fortune to finance leftist causes. He holds a BA in political science and sociology from Occidental College, and an MA in social and public policy from the University of California, Berkeley. After the Los Angles riots that followed the 1992 Rodney King verdict, McKay Jr. established the McKay Family Foundation and became its president, a position he still maintains today.

One of McKay’s early political efforts was his involvement in the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition. In 2000, McKay donated $100,000 to the organization and was honored by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 790 for the contribution. By 2002, McKay had become a leading proponent of Proposition 52 in California, which proposed allowing voters to register at their polling place on election day. Although McKay spent at least $1.5 million on the measure, Prop 52 ultimately failed.

Soon thereafter, McKay turned his attention to national politics. He describes himself as a “founding board member” of America Coming Together (ACT), a George Soros-backed organization (founded in 2003) which was devoted to defeating former President George W. Bush in his bid for reelection. It was reported by The Washington Post that McKay attended a secret meeting at Soros’s Long Island home, where he, Soros, and other top Democratic operatives strategized on ways they could achieve their shared political objectives. That year, the McKay Family Foundation donated $1 million to ACT.

In 2006, McKay was elected chairman of the Democracy Alliance (DA), a political funding outfit similar to ACT. The DA was created by Rob Stein and funded by George Soros and Peter Lewis. The Service Employees International Union’s Anna Burger, the Open Society Institute’s Gara LaMarche, and the Tides Foundation’s Drummond Pike also joined the organization in 2006.

The same year McKay came aboard, the DA established its Secretary of State Project (SoSP), an initiative aimed at installing Democrat-friendly secretaries of state in key battleground states (e.g. Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan). McKay has been an important figure in this ongoing effort. In 2008 McKay donated $25,000 to the SoSP, and in 2010 the McKay Foundation contributed $10,000.

With the financial support of George Soros, the SEIU, and others, McKay later founded and became director of the Fund for America (FA), the 2008 reincarnation of the now-defunct ACT. He was joined in its creation by Anna Burger of the SEIU and John Podesta of the Center for American Progress. The FA donated $4 million to the Campaign to Defend America (also known as Progressive Media, USA, a spin-off of Americans Against Escalation in Iraq), and $4.6 million to America Votes during the 2008 presidential election. In 2008, the FA ceased operations, as had Progressive Media, USA, although the latter never obtained formal political-action-committee status.

McKay also has an extensive association with other leftist organizations: He is a director of Mother Jones magazine and the Salon Media Group (which the McKay Investment Group supports). He is a former director of the Vanguard Public Foundation. He was chair of the 2004 California HAVA [Help America Vote Act] Advisory Committee. And he is a board member of Progress Now.

In addition, McKay has written a number of pieces for the Huffington Post.

McKay has given campaign contributions to numerous politicians including: Barbara Boxer, Donna Edwards, Howard Dean, Martin Heinrich, Barack Obama, Jared Polis, Mark Udall, and Paul Wellstone. He has also contributed to America Coming Together, the Democratic Congressional Committee, the Democratic National Committee Service Corp, Progressive Majority, Team Majority.