Several states are considering action to prevent foreign money from influencing elections – especially ballot measure campaigns.
This comes after a bombshell report revealed that foreign entities poured over $100 million to swing the results of ballot measure votes. This was especially prevalent in states like Missouri that were considering abortion policy, according to National Review.
In 2024, Missouri passed a ballot initiative that overturned a near-total abortion ban and made abortion legal in the state until the point of viability, thanks in part to millions of dollars in foreign funding.
Proponents of the measure far outspent their opponents, with more than $31 million spent on getting voters to support the ballot measure.
Before 2024, only eight states had laws preventing foreign money from being used to influence elections. Now, states like Missouri, Florida, Ohio, Arizona, and others are in the process of passing similar legislation.
At the crux of the matter is the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a left-wing initiative aimed at shaping policy at the state level. The $100 million was funneled through this organization to target various ballot measures.
Caitlin Sutherland, Executive Director of Americans for Public Trust, discussed the issue during an appearance on Fox News. She noted that “this is not a hypothetical situation” and that her organization found that “over $100 million of foreign money has flown through the Sixteen Thirty Fund in these states across the country.”
They are working to implement some far-left and extremist public policies on issues related to abortion, election, election law, and other things across the country. Drug policy, they are trying to sidestep the legislative process and get the most extreme version of public policy possible.
Sutherland further argued that Democrats “know that their far-left agenda often cannot withstand the scrutiny of a typical legislative process, so they are sidestepping the legislative process, and they are getting these extreme public policy measures on the ballot, and they're using foreign dark money to do it.”
She further stated that “foreign-backed funds came into Ohio last year that would have forced the state to gerrymander their congressional districts” and change “the way that the state conducted elections.”
Caitlyn Sutherland of Americans for Public Trust explains how over $100 million in foreign funding was funneled to the Sixteen Thirty Fund to influence various state ballot initiatives and swing the results toward progressive causes.
— Jeff Charles, The Nullifier🏴 (@jeffcharlesjr) April 15, 2025
"We have been able to trace that over 100… pic.twitter.com/pulRTdkQTF
The Sixteen Thirty Fund purports to “help changemakers maximize their impact by providing operational support that allows them to focus on advancing their core missions,” according to its website. The organization’s fund model identifies new projects (ballot initiatives or elections) and the sources funding to provide “support to help the project scale quickly and efficiently.”
A Washington Examiner report detailed how the Berger Action Fund transferred $34.4 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund between April 2023 and 2024. Under federal law, foreign entities cannot fund political candidates. But they can support 501(c)(4) organizations like Sixteen Thirty for ballot measures.
A shadowy organization that Republicans have long accused of laundering foreign money into the American electoral system poured tens of millions of dollars into liberal groups during the 2024 election, new tax filings show.
The Berger Action Fund, a public advocacy group founded by Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, transferred $34.4 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund between April 2023 and March 2024, alongside tens of millions more to other left-wing activists, nonprofit disclosures first shared with Politico show. Conservative activists have accused Wyss of using the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a major leftwing dark money group, as a vehicle to influence American policy with his foreign wealth through a loophole in campaign finance law.
So, Democrats have been seeking power through lawfare, the media, and the purse strings of old foreign billionaires. It makes considering what Sutherland pointed out: Progressives crumble like a fortune cookie when subject to even a modicum of scrutiny. Hopefully, more states will pass laws to prevent this, or the left will continue exploiting this loophole.
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