There is no issue more fundamental to democracy than voting rights.
But last month, when the Senate debated the most far-reaching voting rights legislation in decades, some of the most influential players in the fight were almost totally invisible to the public: the dark-money lobbying groups that draft laws and fund campaigns behind closed doors, away from public view.
The Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity and the Heritage Foundation’s political arm didn’t just lobby against the issue in Congress, they also pressured Sen. Joe Manchin to block changes to the filibuster needed to expand voting rights. All the while, their Republican allies in state legislatures have been advancing harsh new voter suppression laws.
For more than a year, The Intercept’s team of reporters has been poring over tax documents, developing sources, and revealing leaked emails and phone calls to uncover the secretive conservative organizations working behind the scenes to deny Americans the right to vote. But what we’ve uncovered so far is just the tip of the iceberg, and we must keep digging.
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In August, The Intercept obtained a tax document revealing the would-be anonymous donors behind efforts to push former President Donald Trump’s “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen. This conspiracy theory then formed the basis of the most sweeping attack on voting rights since Jim Crow.
Then when voting rights hit the floor of the U.S. Senate, The Intercept reported how Heritage Action — the same group that literally helped write some of the most egregious state voter suppression laws — spent millions successfully lobbying against federal voting rights reform.
Meanwhile, we reported on how the Koch-funded front group Americans for Prosperity led a campaign to pressure Manchin to block the filibuster reform needed to pass voting rights legislation.
And now that federal voting rights legislation appears to be dead for the foreseeable future, these same groups are setting out to push a raft of even more restrictive voter suppression laws in the states before this fall’s critical midterm elections.
What we’re seeing today is the culmination of a decadeslong campaign funded by corporations and wealthy conservatives. Our team will never stop digging to uncover the truth, but we rely on donations from our readers to fuel this critical journalism.
