Leaked Video: How a Dark Money Group Is Trying to Rig Our Elections

The Mother Jones Podcast

The right-wing dark money group Heritage Action for America claims to be the mastermind behind the recent fire hose of state-level voter suppression laws, a new Mother Jones scoop reveals. Mother Jones voting rights reporter Ari Berman joins Jamilah King to walk through the explosive video he obtained of Jessica Anderson, the head of Heritage Action and a former Trump administration official, bragging about having drafted and funded voter suppression legislation in eight battleground states: Arizona, Michigan, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, Texas, and Wisconsin.

“In some cases, we actually draft them for them,” Anderson says in the video. “Or we have a sentinel on our behalf give them the model legislation so it has that grassroots, from-the-bottom-up type of vibe.”

Over the next two years, Heritage Action, the sister organization of the Heritage Foundation, is planning to spend $24 million on efforts to pass and defend legislation that restricts voting. The video reveals the extent to which voter suppression laws are part of a coordinated campaign, funded by conservative special interest groups and dark money, to preserve GOP power by limiting voting. As of April 1, 361 voter suppression laws had been passed in this year alone.

“The Heritage Foundation raised about $122 million in their most recent tax filing, and they don't have to disclose who most of those donors are,” says Ari. “The fact that you have dark money writing and organizing campaigns to pass voter suppression laws, that's really a double whammy when it comes to how our democracy is being undermined.”