Formation | 2011 |
---|---|
Type | Nonprofit |
Headquarters | Washington, D.C. |
Region served | United States |
Key people | Leonard Leo |
Affiliations | Concord Fund CRC Advisors |
Formerly called | Judicial Education Project |
The 85 Fund, also known as the Honest Elections Project, and formerly known as the Judicial Education Project, [1] [2] is a 501(c)(3) organization based in Washington D.C. It is among a network of conservative organizations associated with Leonard Leo, a longtime prominent figure in the Federalist Society, that are funded mostly by anonymous donors. The 85 Fund had revenue of over $65 million in 2020 and, with the Concord Fund, acts as a funding hub for other organizations in the Leo network. [3] [4]
As the Honest Elections Project, it participated in lawsuits during the 2020 United States presidential election and ran advertisements against mail-in voting. [5] [6] [1] [7] It is a proponent of the independent state legislature theory that posits state legislatures have sole authority to establish and enforce state election laws and rules. [8] [9] Leo has said that the fund-raising prowess of Arabella Advisors, a liberal consulting firm, was an inspiration for the 85 Fund to serve a similar function on the right. [2]
The secretary of The 85 Fund is Carrie Severino, who is the president of the Concord Fund. [10] Both funds are closely connected to Leonard Leo, the chairman of CRC Advisors and former vice president of the Federalist Society. [2] [11] [5] [10] [12] The group's 2017 tax return listed a payment of $675,000 to the BH Group, an employer of Leo. [1] [13] Neil Corkery formerly served as president of the group. [14]
Between 2012 and 2017, the group raised $46 million. [15] In 2018, more than 99% of the group's funding came from a single $7.8 million donation from Donors Trust, a donor-advised fund. [1] [16] In 2020, The 85 Fund received $20 million in donations from Donors Trust. [10]
Leo is a powerful figure in fund-raising and expertise for the American conservative movement. [2] He has said that the 85 Fund was inspired by the fund-raising of Arabella Advisors, a liberal consulting firm that advises donors. [2]
Politico reported in August 2023 that Attorney General for the District of Columbia Brian Schwalb was investigating Leo and his network of nonprofit groups. Schwalb's office did not confirm or deny the existence of a probe. [17]
The group donated $300,000 to the Independent Women's Forum, a conservative nonprofit organization. [13]
In 2011 and 2012, Leonard Leo arranged for Liberty Consulting, a firm owned by Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, to be paid $80,000 by Kellyanne Conway and her firm The Polling Company, billed to the Judicial Education Project. Leo directed Conway not to mention Ginni Thomas in the paperwork. Leo told The Washington Post, "As an advisor to JEP I have long been supportive of its opinion research relating to limited government, and The Polling Company, along with Ginni Thomas's help, has been an invaluable resource for gauging public attitudes." He also said "Knowing how disrespectful, malicious and gossipy people can be, I have always tried to protect the privacy of Justice Thomas and Ginni." [18]
In 2020, The 85 Fund provided $750,000 in funding to the Mercatus Center, a think tank affiliated with George Mason University. [10]
In 2020, The 85 Fund donated $1 million to the Accountability and Civics Trust Project, formerly run by Matthew Whitaker. [10] [19] The Accountability and Civics Trust Project filed a complaint to the Office of Special Council to investigate Jennifer Granholm, the current United States Secretary of Energy. [10]
In 2020, The 85 Fund donated $2 million to the Government Accountability Institute, a group founded by former White House strategist Steve Bannon and investigator Peter Schweizer and chaired by Rebekah Mercer. [10]
In April 2020, the Honest Elections Project (HEP) announced it was launching a week-long $250,000 digital and television ad campaign on Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN against mail-in voting. [1] [7]
Lawyers contracted by HEP sent letters to the secretaries of state in Colorado, Florida, and Michigan to lobby for purges of voter rolls in these states. [1] The Guardian reported that these letters used "misleading data to accuse jurisdictions of having bloated voter rolls" and threatened legal action. [1] HEP filed legal briefs in favor of voting restrictions in Nevada, Virginia, Texas, and Minnesota. [1] [20]
In 2020, The 85 Fund provided $70,000 in funding to HEP. [10]
In September 2020, HEP was involved in legal action concerning whether mail-in ballots that were postmarked before the election but arrived up to 14 days after it should be counted; [6] the suit was successful. [5] [21]
HEP concluded that there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 United States presidential election and did not participate in any litigation to try to challenge or overturn the election results. [5] HEP issued a statement criticizing the 2021 United States Capitol attack that occurred on January 6, saying: "The violent insurrection at the Capitol was a heinous attack against democracy, the rule of law, and the election system HEP was created to defend.” [5]
In May 2021, HEP lobbied against H.R. 1, also known as the For the People Act. [22] As of 2021, the executive director of HEP was Jason Snead. [23]
HEP is a proponent of the independent state legislature theory that posits state legislatures have sole authority to establish and enforce state election laws and rules, without judicial or executive review. It has argued the doctrine in amicus briefs to the United States Supreme Court, which in June 2022 decided to hear a case brought by North Carolina Republicans during its next session beginning in October 2022. Critics of the doctrine said it might allow state legislatures controlled by one party, commonly made possible through gerrymandering, to decide the outcome of federal elections against the will of the majority of voters. [8] [9]
HEP has been described as an alias of the Judicial Education Project [5] [1] and the 85 Fund. [1] [9] [3]
HEP has led advocacy efforts against ranked choice voting. [24] [25]
HEP is a member of the advisory board of Project 2025, [26] a collection of conservative and right-wing policy proposals from the Heritage Foundation to reshape the United States federal government and consolidate executive power should the Republican nominee win the 2024 presidential election. [27]
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, commonly known as the Bradley Foundation, is an American charitable foundation based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that primarily supports conservative causes.
Tides Foundation is a left-leaning donor advised fund based in the United States. It was founded in San Francisco in 1976 by Drummond Pike. Tides distributes money from anonymous donors to other organizations, which are often politically progressive. An affiliated group, Tides Advocacy, is a "massive progressive incubator." Tides has received substantial funding from George Soros.
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A publicly funded election is an election funded with money collected through income tax donations or taxes as opposed to private or corporate funded campaigns. It is a policy initially instituted after Nixon for candidates to opt into publicly funded presidential campaigns via optional donations from tax returns. It is an attempt to move toward a one voice, one vote democracy, and remove undue corporate and private entity dominance.
Leonard Anthony Leo is an American lawyer and conservative legal activist. He was the longtime vice president of the Federalist Society and is currently, along with Steven Calabresi, the co-chairman of the organization's board of directors.
CRC Advisors(CRC) (formerly known as Creative Response Concepts Public Relations) is an American public relations firm. Formed in 2020, Leonard Leo is its chairman.
The Democracy Alliance is a network of progressive megadonors who coordinate their political donations to groups that the Alliance has endorsed. Since its founding in 2005, the Democracy Alliance has given more than $1 billion to liberal organizations and political campaigns. According to The New York Times, the group "channels money from megadonors, whom the group keeps anonymous, to organizations it believes will advance a progressive agenda." It has been described by Politico as "the country's most powerful liberal donor club".
Virginia "Ginni" Thomas is an American conservative activist. In 1987, she married Clarence Thomas, who became an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1991. Her conservative commentary and activism have made her a controversial figure, especially because spouses of Supreme Court justices typically avoid engaging in political activity.
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), founded in 2004, is a libertarian conservative political advocacy group in the United States affiliated with brothers Charles Koch and the late David Koch. As the Koch family's primary political advocacy group, it has been viewed as one of the most influential American conservative organizations.
Donors Trust is an American nonprofit donor-advised fund. It was founded in 1999 with the goal of "safeguarding the intent of libertarian and conservative donors". As a donor advised fund, Donors Trust is not legally required to disclose the identity of its donors, and most of its donors remain anonymous. It distributes funds to various conservative and libertarian organizations, and has been characterized as the "dark money ATM" of the political right.
In politics, particularly the politics of the United States, dark money refers to spending to influence elections, public policy, and political discourse, where the source of the money is not disclosed to the public.
Cleta B. Deatherage Mitchell is an American lawyer, politician, and conservative activist. Elected in 1976, Mitchell served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives until 1984, representing District 44 as a member of the Democratic Party. In 1996, she registered as a Republican. Since then, she has worked as a Republican lawyer and conservative activist.
Donors Capital Fund is a nonprofit United States donor-advised charity that distributes grants to conservative and libertarian organizations. Donors Capital Fund is associated with Donors Trust, another donor-advised fund.
The Concord Fund is an American conservative advocacy organization. Its president is Carrie Severino, a former law clerk for Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas. In 2020, OpenSecrets described the organization as having "unmatched influence in recent years in shaping the federal judiciary." It is among a network of organizations associated with Leonard Leo, a co-chair of the Federalist Society, that are funded mostly by anonymous donors, with funding distributed by Concord and a related group, The 85 Fund.
Arabella Advisors is a Washington, D.C.-based for-profit consulting company that advises left-leaning donors and nonprofits about where to give money and serves as the hub of a politically liberal "dark money" network. It was founded by former Clinton administration appointee Eric Kessler. The Arabella network spent nearly $1.2 billion in 2020 and raised $1.6 billion that same year. In 2022, Arabella raised $1.3 billion and spent $900 million.
Alaska state elections in 2020 were held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. Aside from its party-run Democratic presidential primary held on April 10, its primary elections were held on August 18, 2020.
BH Group is a for-profit limited liability corporation registered in Virginia in August 2016. Partly owned by longtime Federalist Society executive Leonard Leo, it was the sister group of the BH Fund and is closely related to the Wellspring Committee. BH Group is compensated by The 85 Fund and Concord Fund, which are operated by Leo associates.
Carrie Campbell Severino is an American lawyer and conservative political activist. She is the president of the Concord Fund, where she supported the Supreme Court nominations of Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. She is the coauthor of Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund is a hub of undisclosed political spending on the American Left. The group serves as a fiscal sponsor for other organizations, incubating and financing various progressive projects. According to The New York Times, "The Sixteen Thirty is part of a broader network of progressive nonprofits that donors use to fill specific spaces on the political chessboard." The Sixteen Thirty Fund is administered by Arabella Advisors, a for-profit consulting firm.
Debra Cleaver is an American nonprofit executive who founded Vote.org and VoteAmerica.