Left-wing billionaires behind astroturfed ‘grassroots’ operation attacking House GOP

Lower Costs California, Nebraska for Us, and Michigan Families for Fair Care all have a bone to pick with Republicans; they run attack ads on GOP lawmakers running for reelection in competitive races and promote President Joe Biden‘s agenda.

At first glance, the trio appear distinct from one another and to be grassroots projects organized by concerned citizens aiming to hold power accountable in separate states. But in actuality, these three groups are all one and the same — shadowy legal trade names of a recently formed nonprofit organization registered in Wilmington, Delaware, according to corporate Washington, D.C., records. That entity, Unrig our Economy, is itself hardly grassroots: every dime of its publicly available funding, $5 million during Unrig Our Economy’s last fiscal year, derives from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, an influential Washington, D.C.-based activist hub that is bankrolled by left-wing billionaires and managed by Arabella Advisors, the largest Democratic-allied dark money network in the United States.

That the $1 billion Arabella Advisors consulting firm is closely linked to Unrig Our Economy’s state-level operation is a window into how financiers of Arabella’s offshoots work discreetly through complex tax laws to prop up self-styled grassroots groups that serve as GOP attack dogs come election season. Arabella’s offshoots, including the Sixteen Thirty Fund, sponsor hundreds of projects raking in anonymous checks and also incubate groups that often go on to become key players in the world of progressive-Left philanthropy.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund, which spent over $400 million in 2020 boosting Democrats and helping to unseat former President Donald Trump, is under no obligation as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit group to disclose its donors. However, some public disclosures show major supporters to the Sixteen Thirty Fund in recent years have included entities tied to George Soros, Hansjörg Wyss, Pierre Omidyar, Mark Zuckerberg, as well as Mark Heising and his wife, Liz Simons.

There is “nothing local about these faux grassroots campaigns designed to confuse and mislead voters,” said Caitlin Sutherland, director of the conservative Americans for Public Trust watchdog group. APT, which has argued Arabella’s offshoots violated their tax-exempt status by allegedly enriching Arabella’s founder, Eric Kessler, is affiliated with a right-leaning network of groups shaped by conservative activist Leonard A. Leo. Arabella-linked groups, in turn, have accused Leo of enriching himself through the network. Both networks deny any wrongdoing.

Unrig Our Economy, which formed in 2022 as a merger of two Sixteen Thirty Fund projects called Tax March and Health Care Voter, told the Washington Examiner it “advocates for a fair tax code and an economy that works for everyone while holding corporations accountable for hurting working Americans.” The Sixteen Thirty Fund issued a $5 million grant in 2022 to Unrig Our Economy, the president of which, longtime Democratic political operative Andrea Purse, is the former managing director of the Arabella-linked Hub Project that, according to the New York Times, Wyss started.

And one year later, in 2023, Unrig Our Economy went on the offensive, creating pop-up groups to enjoy its tax-exempt status and do its political work in several states under the manufactured banner of grassroots activism, according to corporate records.

There’s Lower Costs California, “a group of concerned citizens who have a vision for a better and more affordable California for people from every background.” There’s Nebraska For Us, “a coalition of workers, farmers, grandparents, small business owners, and everyone in between committed to fighting for a fair Nebraska that works for us.”

And there’s also Michigan Families for Fair Care, which says on its website that it works to elevate “the voices of Michiganders and telling the stories of our families, friends, and neighbors who want a brighter and healthier future for their families and communities.”

The Sixteen Thirty Fund-backed initiatives have recently launched multimillion-dollar ad campaigns targeting House Republicans ahead of the 2024 election, according to press releases and Facebook’s ad spending database. Many ads depict individuals touting their credentials as residents of California, Nebraska, and Michigan, though they don’t appear to make any mention of Unrig Our Economy or its Washington, D.C.-based financier, the Sixteen Thirty Fund.

Lower Costs California ran ads between January and June against Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), who faces a tough challenge in Democrat Will Rollins. Nebraska for Us manages active campaigns accusing Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), who is running against Democrat Tony Vargas, of wanting to cut Medicare and raise the retirement age. And Michigan Families for Fair Care launched a “12-week, seven-figure paid media ad campaign” earlier this year slamming Rep. John James (R-MI) for a congressional vote that the group said would raise healthcare costs.

“Michigan Families for Fair Care is a 501(c)(4) issue advocacy campaign devoted to educating the residents of Michigan’s 10th Congressional District on important economic issues and the impact of Congressman John James’ votes in Congress,” Michigan Families for Fair Care said this year when announcing an ad called “Can’t Afford It” featuring “Alex, a carpenter from Mount Clemens, who owns a construction business and knows what it’s like to struggle to afford health insurance.”

To CEO Jeff Clements of American Promise, a group that advocates limiting certain spending in elections, the Unrig Our Economy-led campaign is notable because out-of-state resources often go a long way in determining race outcomes. While legal, the lack of transparency in the case of the Unrig Our Economy arrangement is likely to leave voters uninformed about who may be influencing their candidate selections, according to Clements.

“Tactics like this from fake grassroots groups are the reason voters are fed up with a political system that’s overly nationalized, in the pocket of big-moneyed elites, and fails to address issues that their voters care about,” Clements said.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund and other Arabella-managed groups have in the past been connected to similar political operations masquerading as grassroots. The New York Times reported in 2022 that the Sixteen Thirty Fund in 2020 was the main backer of Piedmont Rising, which ran ads aiming to appear as news reports on a website dubbed the “North Carolina Examiner” attacking Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC).

Moreover, Arabella groups have in recent years helped fund a Democratic operative-run political operation called Courier Newsroom that is behind partisan “local news” websites across the country, OpenSecrets reported in 2020.

In 2018, the Sixteen Thirty Fund financed attack ads on House Republicans in swing states with the help of grassroots-sounding trade names in Florida, Michigan, and North Carolina, Politico reported.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund did not reply to a request for comment. Unrig Our Economy declined to comment on its ties to the Sixteen Thirty Fund.