A radical New York jeweler set to host a high-dollar Manhattan fundraiser for Democratic Senate hopefuls James Talarico and Sherrod Brown once called the United States a sh, thole and marketed jewelry with ads of a fictional female serial killer.
Alexis Bittar is listed first on the host committee for the Monday soirée in downtown Manhattan, where top tickets are priced at $27,000, and actors Robert De Niro and Gina Gershon are scheduled to appear alongside the Texas and Ohio candidates.
The Washington Free Beacon reported that Bittar did not respond to a request for comment, and neither the Talarico nor Brown campaigns returned requests for comment on the event or the host’s record.
The gathering puts two Senate hopefuls in the same room with a self-described left activist whose public comments and marketing choices sit far outside mainstream politics. For voters watching the party’s direction, the pairing is hard to miss.
Bittar has spent recent months boosting far-left Democrats. In a June Instagram post backing Brooklyn socialist Claire Valdez, who defeated an establishment Democrat in a House primary this summer, Bittar wrote: “Hey people... it's voting time!!! Bringing in all the Democrat Socialists!! Let's change America.”
“Hey people... it's voting time!!! Bringing in all the Democrat Socialists!! Let's change America.”
In an August Instagram spot with Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, Bittar declared that “the traditional Democrats have one foot in the grave!! The revolution has begun!” He cohosted a fundraiser for El-Sayed earlier this year.
That same circle of progressive politics has already fueled internal Democratic fights, including the Michigan Senate race flashpoint over far-left figures that split the party’s own ranks.
Bittar also served as a top financial bundler for New York City socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani during the campaign, according to reporting cited in the Free Beacon account. The pattern is consistent: cash, events, and social-media muscle for candidates who pull the party left.
Talarico, a Texas Democrat, and Brown, the Ohio Democrat seeking a return to the Senate, are the headliners. De Niro and Gershon are listed as appearances. The venue remains undisclosed. The price point signals a serious bundling operation aimed at national money, not a neighborhood meet-and-greet.
Voters in Texas and Ohio will decide whether that New York pipeline matches their own priorities. Party leaders already know the liability. Sen. John Fetterman has warned that Democrats have a “socialism problem,” and nights like this one hand critics fresh material.
Bittar’s own biography tracks the same lane. In a 2016 interview he noted that both of his parents were socialists. He has described himself as a “drug addict dropout” turned jeweler and activist. The politics are not a side hobby. They are the brand.
In a December 2025 interview with V Magazine, Bittar discussed a digital marketing series built around a fictional female serial killer named Amanda Gates, described as being from Brooklyn. An actress playing Gates is shown strangling a male victim to death while wearing Alexis Bittar earrings.
Bittar’s explanation was blunt.
“I am always intrigued by people who kill.”
He added that “traditional marketing approaches are dead.” The campaign used violence as product placement. The earrings stay in the shot while the victim dies on camera. That is the sales pitch.
Republican strategists have spent months trying to pin Democrats to the most radical voices in their coalition. Rep. Brandon Gill has pressed Republicans to force Democrats into defending far-left positions in plain view. A fundraiser host who markets jewelry with a strangulation scene makes that job easier.
Bittar’s cultural politics match the marketing edge. In an Interview Magazine conversation published one day before the 250th birthday of the United States, he called the country a sh, thole. The timing was not subtle.
He also produced a 33-minute documentary, Reclaim the Flag, with filmmaker Bruce Cohen. Musician King Princess appears in the film and says that seeing an American flag in a yard signals bigotry and fear to a queer person. Former White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre has a cameo. Bittar collaborated on projects with Vivian Wilson, Elon Musk’s estranged transgender child.
In comments to Forbes tied to the film, Bittar said the flag had become “such a symbol of aggression” and asked how tragic it was that “the ultimate symbol of the United States, is now used as a weapon to bifurcate.”
“It's become such a symbol of aggression, the American flag, like 'we're coming for you' during Trump's era.”
That is the worldview of the man raising money for two Senate candidates who need broad coalitions in Texas and Ohio. The same progressive lane has already produced candidates who joke about communism and drift further from the center, as seen with Maine Senate hopeful Troy Jackson’s record and rhetoric.
Bittar was not always a pure outsider brand. Michelle Obama repeatedly wore his jewelry, including during a State of the Union address. Photos show them together at the White House. Visitor logs show Bittar visited the Obama White House at least three times. In February 2013 he wrote a Huffington Post piece titled “What It Is Like to Design for Michelle Obama.”
The arc is familiar: elite access first, revolutionary language later. One year he is designing for a first lady. Later he is posting that traditional Democrats have one foot in the grave and that “the revolution has begun.”
In another Instagram post supporting El-Sayed, Bittar claimed the candidate might lose because of what he called the “Zi*nist machine,” major media ownership, and “AIPAC's hold over this country and politicians” who “do not want any Progressive Dems to win because of their stance on the middle east.” The post put conspiracy-tinged pressure politics next to the fundraising circuit.
That mix, glamour donors, socialist endorsements, and hostility to mainstream Democrats, is exactly the problem party centrists keep tripping over. Democrats’ socialist problem remains a ready-made midterm weapon when high-dollar hosts talk this way in public.
As of the Free Beacon’s reporting, Bittar had no on-record reply. Talarico’s campaign had none. Brown’s campaign had none. The event was still scheduled. The host committee still listed Bittar first. The Hollywood names were still attached.
Senate candidates can choose their bundlers. They can also explain the choice. Silence leaves the record to speak: the serial-killer ad concept, the sh, thole line on the nation’s birthday window, the flag-as-aggression talk, and the open call for Democrat Socialists to “change America.”
Texas and Ohio voters are not required to treat a Manhattan check-writing night as a side detail. When the host’s own words celebrate “revolution,” mock the flag, and sell earrings with a staged strangling, the company the candidates keep becomes part of the race.
If Democrats want to run as the party of normal governance, they might start by noticing who is filling the $27,000 seats, and what those hosts say when the cameras are already rolling.
