InfluenceWatch Friday

InfluenceWatch, a project of Capital Research Center, is a comprehensive and ever-evolving compilation of our research into the numerous advocacy groups, foundations, and donors working to influence the public policy process. The website offers transparency into these influencers’ funding, motives, and connections while providing insight often neglected by other watchdog groups.

The information compiled in InfluenceWatch gives news outlets and other interested parties research to use in reporting on significant topics that are often overlooked by the American public.

CRC is pleased to present some of the most significant additions to InfluenceWatch in the past week:

• The Centre for Voters Initiative and Action (CVIA) is a nonprofit outreach group that works to increase election turnout and registration among young voters. The organization was founded and run by high school students, with some of its leadership previously working for Democratic Party affiliates or left-of-center groups. CVIA receives donations through ActBlue Charities, an affiliate of Democratic Party-aligned fundraising group ActBlue. Since October 2023, CVIA staff have met with Biden Administration officials and over 250 Congressional offices to promote voter registration among high school students.
• Our Voice Our Vote (OVOV) is an advocacy group that works on political issues related to racial minorities in the state of Arizona. OVOV has a Super PAC arm called Our Voice Our Vote Arizona PAC that has received funding from left-of-center groups including Community Change Voters, the Movement Voter PAC (connected to the Movement Voter Fund) and the Be a Hero PAC (connected to the Be a Hero Fund). In June 2024, an OVOV volunteer staffer was arrested for allegedly stealing a digital magnetic key used to program Election Day voting machine tabulators in Maricopa County, Arizona.
• The National Trust for Local News (NTLN) is a Colorado-based nonprofit that supports state and local news outlets through financing and offering operational guidance. It acquired 24 local newspapers, websites and digital newsletters through a grant from the Gates Foundation, and as of 2024 it had expanded operations into four other states including Maine and Georgia. As of June 2024, the group has received donations from left-of-center organizations including Open Society Foundations, the MacArthur Foundation, Tides, and Pierre Omidyar’s Democracy Fund.
• The Teamsters Local 695 is a Wisconsin-based labor union affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), representing roughly 3,800 employees primarily in the food and beverage manufacturing industry. In 2024, Teamsters Local 695 announced plans to merge with Minnesota-based Teamsters Local 120, representing 11,500 workers in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota. That same year, Teamsters Local 695 was involved in a lawsuit that overturned large portions of Wisconsin Act 10, originally passed in 2011 under then-Governor Scott Walker (R) to change collective bargaining laws in the state.
• Never Again, NOW! is a pro-Israel advocacy group, founded in 2024 by former New York governor Andrew Cuomo (D), that supports strong relations between the United States and Israel. The group claims that it was founded to oppose the rise in antisemitism in the U.S., particularly on college campuses, following the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel in October 2023 and the resulting Israel-Hamas war. In July 2024, Never Again, NOW! released an advertisement criticizing pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses while stating: “Hamas persecutes gays and subjugates women, while teaching kids to hate and kill.”