John and Laura Arnold Give Over $15 Million to Groups Fighting to Protect Ineligible Voters from Federal Election Law Enforcement

The Fair Election Fund (FEF), a national election integrity watchdog group, today released a new report revealing how liberal organizations funded by billionaires John and Laura Arnold have mobilized to block President Trump’s executive order aimed at ensuring only eligible American citizens cast ballots in federal elections.

FEF’s research has found that Arnold-backed groups have received over $15 million from John and Laura Arnold, who publicly champion themselves as “bipartisan” philanthropists, and are now leading the legal charge to prevent the federal government from enforcing basic voter eligibility standards, including blocking the United States Postal Service from sending ballots only to verified, eligible voters.

Among the report’s findings:

• The ACLU received between $5 million and $9.99 million from the Arnolds, which filed suit against President Trump’s voter integrity executive order in April 2026 and moved to block the United States Postal Service from sending ballots only to verified, eligible voters.

• The Brookings Institution received more than $5.7 million from the Arnolds, which published multiple pieces on President Trump’s election integrity executive orders stating that they threaten “to undermine American elections” and are “a serious overreach of executive authority.”

• The Bipartisan Policy Center received more than $2.25 million from the Arnolds, which has used its so-called “bipartisan” credibility as cover to oppose key components of the president’s election integrity agenda through reports and public comments.

• The Center for American Progress received more than $1.5 million from the Arnolds. CAP is a liberal organization run by a former Obama and Biden administration aide that has repeatedly attacked President Trump’s voter integrity efforts, stating his EO “would be nothing but another escalation in his anti-democratic attempts to spread disinformation about the security of American elections, deny people their right to vote, and sabotage election results to lock in his political power.”  

• Brennan Center for Justice received more than $1.6 million from the Arnolds, which joined the ACLU’s April 2026 lawsuit against President Trump’s executive order and has publicly declared that “Trump is waging war on our elections.”

BACKGROUND:

• 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