Organizations Received $8.5 Million+ From John and Laura Arnold

The Fair Election Fund (FEF), a national election integrity watchdog group, today released a new report showing that the groups fighting the Trump administration’s mail ballot safeguards share a similar financial backer: self-proclaimed “bipartisans,” John and Laura Arnold. 

Earlier this year, President Trump signed Executive Order 14399, directing the United States Postal Service to write rules keeping non-citizens from voting by mail. When USPS finalized those rules on August 21, Arnold-funded organizations like the ACLU and Center for American Progress went straight to court. FEF found the groups behind the challenge have collected more than $8.5 million from the Arnolds.

Among the report’s findings:

• The ACLU has received $5 million to $9.99 million from the Arnolds and helped represent the plaintiffs in court and described the executive order as “an illegal and dangerous attempt” to “eliminate accessible voting options.”
• The Brennan Center for Justice has received at least $1.6 million from the Arnolds, and served as counsel to the plaintiffs, then hailed the Supreme Court’s order as “a major victory for voters” and “another significant defeat for the Trump administration.”
• The Center for American Progress has received at least $1.5 million from the Arnolds and accused the President of trying “to weaponize the U.S. Postal Service” and labeled the Court’s action a “pro-voter decision.”
• The Progressive State Leaders Committee has received nearly $240,000 from Action Now, Inc. and organized 24 Democratic attorneys general, roughly a dozen Democratic secretaries of state and allied groups through weekly Zoom calls and tabletop exercises to counter federal election efforts.
• The Public Citizen received $220,000 from Action Now, Inc. in 2025 and represented the NAACP in the motion that resulted in a federal judge blocking the rule, while telling visitors to its website it is “fighting, suing, and organizing against the Trump regime.”

BACKGROUND:

• In September, FEF released a report revealing the Arnolds’ funding to numerous groups rushing to block President Trump’s voter integrity efforts.
• FEF released a report in August finding that the “bipartisan” Arnold philanthropists bankroll the fight against voter ID and the SAVE Act.
• FEF released a report in July uncovering how the Arnold Foundation secretly funneled $20M to the Democrat election machine.
• In June, FEF commended House Oversight Chairman Comer and the committee for investigating Norm Eisen’s pay-to-play scheme, calling it “deeply troubling.”
• In April, FEF called attention to a report revealing ActBlue potentially misled Congress on foreign donation vetting, corroborating FEF’s own 2024 findings of potential cases of donor fraud within ActBlue.
• Last year, FEF launched a report series grading election administration officials in battleground states across the U.S.
• In 2024, the Fair Election Fund launched an investigation examining the jury summons responses and voter rolls in key swing state counties to identify voter fraud.
• In August of 2024, the Fair Election Fund uncovered 60,000 potential cases of donor fraud involving the Biden-Harris campaign and ActBlue and turned over the data to Republican attorneys general across the country.

The Fair Election Fund is an election watchdog group that was formed to shine a light on fraud and abuse still occurring in our election system.