A leftist dark money group appears to have identified a loophole that allows it to funnel cash from foreign billionaires into U.S. elections, spending tens of millions of dollars to drive turnout in key states.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund, a nonprofit that has funneled more than $1 billion dollars in dark money to liberal causes, has spent nearly $23 million this election cycle on state ballot initiatives covering everything from abortion to election reform, according to a report from Americans for Public Trust provided exclusively to The Daily Wire.
Because the ballot initiatives tend to be on liberal issues, the voters they draw to the polls are also likely to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris while they’re at it.
Some of the donors to the dark money group include Democrat megadonor George Soros, eBay founder and billionaire Pierre Omidyar, and Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, who said he has “never felt the need to become an American” but wants to “(re)interpret the American Constitution in the light of progressive politics,” according to a biography written by his sister.
Wyss has given $243 million to Sixteen Thirty Fund. As a foreign national, Wyss is prohibited from donating to American political candidates or influencing the country’s elections, but he is not prohibited from funding state ballot initiative campaigns.
This election cycle, the Sixteen Thirty Fund is funding ballot initiatives in several swing states or states with a close Senate election, Americans for Public Trust found.
In Arizona, the group gave $1.25 million to support a ballot initiative that will enshrine a right to abortion in the state constitution if it passes. Nevada has a similar abortion initiative on the ballot this November, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund has given $500,000 to that effort. Democrats hope that putting abortion on the ballot will boost Democratic voter turnout in these states.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund is also funding ballot initiatives in Ohio, Florida, Nebraska, Montana, Missouri, and Alaska.
Since 2014, the Sixteen Thirty Fund has spent more than $115 million on ballot initiatives in 25 states — including $34 million in Michigan, $21 million in Ohio, $11 million in Colorado, $10 million in Missouri, $7 million in Nevada, about $3.5 million each in Florida and North Carolina, and $1 million in Arizona.
Americans for Public Trust called on Congress and state legislatures to close this “foreign influence loophole.”
“It’s unconscionable that foreign money is currently influencing our politics through a loophole most mainstream media and politicians are either ignoring or don’t know about,” Americans for Public Trust Executive Director Caitlin Sutherland told The Daily Wire.
“Activists like the ones running Sixteen Thirty Fund are targeting competitive states — not just to usher in left-wing legislative changes via these ballot measures, but also to give a boost to the liberals at the top of the ticket, which folks have openly admitted that’s their goal,” Sutherland said.
Sutherland pointed out that in Montana, Democrat Senator Jon Tester’s campaign is struggling, and Montana “not so coincidentally” has an abortion initiative on the ballot.
“I can’t imagine Montanans would be okay knowing foreign dark money is targeting their state to give a boost to the Left’s preferred candidate,” she said.
Missouri was the “top target” for the Sixteen Thirty Fund this cycle, Sutherland said.
“At least $8 million came into their state from this foreign-backed group to fund two ballot issue campaigns — one on abortion and one on minimum wage/paid sick leave. I don’t think the people of Missouri would be thrilled to know a foreign billionaire is helping push policy that would never pass in a million years if they weren’t sidestepping the legislature,” she said.
She suggested looking to Ohio, which earlier this year became the first state to ban both direct and indirect foreign funding of state ballot issues — although not before the Sixteen Thirty Fund pumped millions of dollars into a ballot initiative there.
