In October 2024, a right-of-center watchdog organization called Americans for Public Trust released a bombshell report claiming that foreigners may have dumped tens of millions of dollars into ballot initiative campaigns ahead of November’s election. Since then, a coalition of right-of-center advocacy groups has worked with grassroots activists and state legislators to block foreign entities from throwing their money into American ballot referendums.
APT pointed to a loophole in many states’ election laws which they claim allowed foreign citizens to donate to 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations and for those organizations to then spend money advocating for or against ballot measures. The concerted push to stop that practice by APT, Heritage Action, and the Honest Elections Project, alongside others, has borne considerable fruit.
