A Democratic mayoral candidate in Denver, Mike Johnston, now locked in a hotly contested run-off, styles himself as a progressive rising star and man of the people. Just don’t ask his campaign about his membership in Skull and Bones, the ultra-exclusive Yale secret society that’s been a source of conspiracy theories about world domination by elites for almost 200 years.  

Records shared exclusively with the Sun show that Mr. Johnston belonged to Skull and Bones during his senior year at Yale, from which he graduated in 1997.  When asked about Mr. Johnston’s membership, his campaign did not respond to multiple inquiries. That’s par for the course for so-called Bonesmen: If asked about their membership, they are required to remain silent, or even get up and leave the room.

Mr. Johnston, 48, a former state senator, is competing with a former Denver chamber of commerce CEO, Kelly Brough, 58. The race has focused heavily on public safety, affordable housing, and homelessness, which has emerged as a major problem in Denver much as it has in West Coast progressive cities like Portland and Seattle.

Ms. Brough — who served as chief of staff to Mayor John Hickenlooper — has said she would continue to enforce the city’s ban on public camping, and even said she would consider allowing for the arrest of homeless people as a “last resort.” She also wants to hire more police officers, especially more Black officers. 

Mr. Johnston has a more benevolent approach to the homelessness crisis in the city, saying he wants to build tens of thousands of affordable housing units and so-called tiny houses in the next eight years. 

As might be expected of someone so connected to societal elites, Mr. Johnston, who also has degrees from Yale’s ultra-exclusive law school as well as from Harvard’s school of education, has been rapidly outraising his competitor thanks, in large part, to extremely wealthy donors from outside of Colorado. 

Mr. Johnston has raised $2.2 million from outside expenditure groups as of April 3, which is more than half of the $3.5 million he has raised in total. In the week before the first round of voting, outside groups spent more than $500,000 on television advertisements in support of Mr. Johnston. 

The largest outside spending group backing Mr. Johnston is Advancing Denver, which is primarily funded by billionaires Reid Hoffman and Steve Mandel. In a statement posted to LinkedIn, Mr. Hoffman, founder of the social media network, called Mr. Johnston a “friend” and “one of the most creative and courageous political entrepreneurs” he has worked with. Mr. Hoffman has also been heavily involved in financing Democratic campaigns around the country. 

Traditionally, those “tapped” to join Skull and Bones are informed during the spring semester of their junior year, so Mr. Johnston would have received his invitation in 1996. Only 15 undergraduates are tapped every year. They meet inside Skull and Bones’s forbidding “tomb,” a hulking and windowless stone structure at the center of Yale’s campus where no one but members may enter.

The group’s exclusivity is compounded by its long history of admitting only white, protestant men. Skull and Bones did not permit Black men to join until 1965 — nearly a century after Yale admitted its first Black student. The group has also been accused of stealing the skulls of a famous Apache leader, Geronimo, and a Mexican revolutionary general, Pancho Villa. 

In 1991, members of the secret society attempted to invite women to join, but a conservative writer, William F. Buckley — himself a “Bonesman” — sued to stop them from joining. The Bones alumni famously locked the society’s tomb to prevent women from entering. The lawsuit was dismissed in 1992, leading to the first “Boneswomen” just four years before Mr. Johnston was invited to join. 

Skull and Bones has been a breeding ground for some of the most powerful people in America. Their alumni include three U.S. presidents, Supreme Court justices, members of Congress, cabinet secretaries, Fortune 500 executives, intelligence officials, and other influential figures. In the 2004 presidential election, the dueling candidates, President Bush and Senator Kerry, were both Bonesmen. 

The secret society’s power and influence have dwindled significantly in recent decades, following the schism over admitting women, and since the 1990s the society’s alumni list has not stood out as it had in the past. But Skull and Bones continues to be the object of conspiracy theories claiming that the group controls the CIA and yearns for world domination. The notorious “mole hunter” head of the CIA’s counterintelligence unit between 1954 and 1975, James Jesus Angleton, was a Bonesman. 

Mr. Johnston has his own roots in Colorado’s elite society. He was born and raised in Colorado politics. His father, Paul Ross Johnston, served as mayor of Vail during the 1980s. After moving to the famous ski destination in 1967, the elder Mr. Johnston was credited with helping create the Vail that exists today by developing real estate, drawing in tourists, securing the 1989 World Alpine Ski championship, and founding the local chamber of commerce. 

A poll from Tuesday shows Mr. Johnston leading Mr. Brough, 38.9 percent to 34.1 percent. 

Before running for Denver mayor, Mr. Johnston served as a state senator between 2009 and 2017. He unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018 and withdrew from the Democratic primary for Colorado’s 2020 U.S. Senate race. 

While his Skull and Bones class lacks the luster of the society’s days of yore, one fellow member of the secret society’s Class of 1997, according to author Anthony Sutton, Tali Farhadian Weinstein, ran for Manhattan district attorney in 2021. Despite heavy spending, she was defeated by President Trump’s nemesis, Alvin Bragg.

Mr. Johnston’s membership in Skull and Bones was confirmed to the Sun by Alexandra Robbins, a researcher who wrote a book on the organization and says she has access to the society’s official, confidential member ledger.