Investigating Power
Major right-wing funders bankroll the GOP gerrymandering guru responsible for engineering new Texas maps to lock up MAGA control of the U.S. House of Representatives, an examination of tax filings by the Center for Media and Democracy shows.
ALEC’s largest identifiable funder is the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation, which funneled $3.6 million into its coffers between 2019 and 2024. Some of the funds were used to bankroll ALEC CARE, the pay-to-play group’s controversial voter management campaign software.
Housed in the offices of the Conservative Partnership Institute, the Foundation for Accountability Integrity & Research in Elections Fund (FAIR Elections Fund), brought in $3.9 million between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024, and disclosed $2.1 million in expenses, more than three-quarters of which was disbursed in grants to other organizations.
Republican state legislators backed by corporate-funded advocacy groups have also made significant strides toward flattening or eliminating once-progressive state income taxes in this year’s legislative sessions.
Turning Point Action, which campaigned for Donald Trump in Wisconsin in 2024, is deploying its get-out-the-vote machinery to back Brad Schimel in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election on April 1, 2025.
The Freedom Foundation, a notorious anti-union advocacy group, has launched a new organization, the Teacher Freedom Alliance, which the foundation’s CEO describes as “an alternative for pro-America educators who seek to restore traditional values in the classroom and provide students with the high-quality education they deserve — free from political influence and union control.”
On April 30, the Indiana-based Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), a right-wing litigation group, filed a lawsuit in Wisconsin to gain greater access to voter registrations in the state as part of its national campaign to purge voter rolls. The group has filed similar lawsuits in at least eight other states this election cycle.
A review of IRS tax filings reveals that six of the groups leading the legislative attack against environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing principles have received more than $85 million in recent years from several large foundations.
“I ❤️ billionaires,” the far-right activist said.
Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya just won a major prize from one of the most powerful right-wing foundations in America.