April 16, 2025
Seventeen states have either introduced or passed bills banning foreign money from influencing state ballot measures.
All of them are red states.
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky , Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wyoming have all introduced or passed such bills. Five of the states have passed the laws: Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and Wyoming. Six states have had their bills passed by a house of the legislature already: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, Montana, and Tennessee, as Americans For Public Trust (APT) has documented.
“Federal law prohibits foreign nationals from contributing to candidates and Super PACS, but there is no federal prohibition against foreign nationals funding ballot issue campaigns,” APT notes. “Without closing this foreign influence loophole, states are leaving their public policy open to being influenced by foreign interests.”
One organization APT examined was the Sixteen Thirty Fund. It was described by Politico in 2021, as a “left-leaning, secret-money group” that “ doled out a whopping $410 million in 2020, aiding Democratic efforts to unseat then-President Donald Trump and win back control of the Senate. The group, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, financed attack ads against Trump and vulnerable Republican senators and funded massive get-out-the-vote and issue advocacy campaigns amid the coronavirus pandemic”
One of the Sixteen Thirty Fund’s donors is a Swiss billionaire, Hansjorg Wyss, whom APT says has contributed $280 million to the fund. “Sixteen Thirty Fund takes advantage of this loophole and has spent $130 million on ballot issue campaigns in 26 states. It is also important to note that as Mr. Wyss’ foreign money runs through the Sixteen Thirty Fund, there is nothing stopping foreign adversaries from taking advantage of this same loophole.”
The Sixteen Thirty Fund spent over $33 million in Michigan, over $20 million in Ohio, almost $17 million in Florida, almost $13 million in Missouri, almost $11 million in Colorado, and almost $7 million in Nebraska and Nevada.
Issues the Sixteen Thirty Fund has focused on include abortion, electoral reform, minimum wage, paid sick leave, and taxes.
