OPINION:
Election 2025 is less than one month away, and dozens of ballot initiatives will be considered in the states. Property tax hikes, voter ID requirements and other issues are on the ballot.
Unfortunately, Americans won’t be deciding on their own. Noncitizens can influence U.S. elections and domestic policymaking through “dark money” donations to ballot initiatives. Foreign billionaires with unknown or ulterior motives can funnel massive funds into the ballot initiative process, swaying results state by state.
How can this be? In 2021, the Federal Election Commission ruled that foreign nationals can donate money to U.S. ballot initiatives.
Although states such as California, Colorado and Ohio have sought to prohibit foreign money in ballot initiatives, even when foreign-owned or partially owned corporations are prohibited, foreign individuals tend to be exempt from restrictions. Ohio is an interesting case study: The state prohibited foreign ballot initiative money in 2024 after more than $14 million in foreign funds poured into the state to support ballot measures reducing penalties for fentanyl possession and codifying pro-abortion laws in the Ohio Constitution.
Since 2014, a single left-wing organization, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, has spent $130 million bankrolling ballot issues in 26 states. One of its top donors is Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, who has contributed at least $280 million to the left’s top outside group.
Foreign governments such as China, Iran and Russia seek to destabilize our democracy every election cycle, including through social media and state ballot initiatives. Because the FEC has interpreted “election” as applying only to candidate races, not ballot measures, foreign governments can exploit the loophole in federal law to meddle with contentious issue advocacy campaigns. In 2020, Quebec’s government-owned utility, Hydro-Quebec, spent millions of dollars to defeat a Maine ballot initiative that challenged a power transmission project. The loophole still exists.
In my home state, the Texas attorney general’s office investigation into ActBlue exposed serious concerns about suspicious foreign donations, and the case was referred to the Justice Department. These donations are difficult to trace because this dark money has no federal or state disclosure requirements, so the Justice Department is justified in investigating whether or not foreign governments may be involved.
Ahead of the 2026 midterms, we should all be worried about foreign influence disrupting our electoral process. Aiming to close existing loopholes before next year, Congress has introduced bipartisan legislation to prohibit foreign nationals from influencing American elections at any level. The Trump administration recently called attention to the issue, acknowledging that “foreign interference in our election process undermines the franchise and the right of American citizens to govern their Republic.”
The stakes for election integrity couldn’t be higher. I represent more than 1 million Texans in my state Senate district, just north of Dallas. Before becoming a state senator, I was a high school math and physics teacher and school counselor for more than 20 years, helping prepare adolescents for a successful future. I knew then (and it has become clearer as I’ve served in the Texas Senate) that our children are literally our future. That makes our mission very clear: keeping our future free.
As someone with four grown children and six grandchildren, it is clear to me that lawmakers at the state and federal levels are tasked with passing the baton to the next generation. We received a baton of freedom from the generation before us, and we must keep America the freest country in the world — the place where everyone, especially our own children and grandchildren, wants to live and thrive.
If anything, the stakes are even higher because of technological advances that the Founders could never have predicted. With social media, online fundraising and artificial intelligence, foreign individuals and entities have innumerable mechanisms they can exploit to sway ballot initiatives and elections this way or that, and not necessarily in the best interests of U.S. citizens.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld Ohio’s prohibition on foreign nationals’ spending on ballot issue campaigns. That is a small win, but it is not enough. An even greater win would be for Congress to pass a constitutional amendment that empowers U.S. states to enact laws restricting foreign influence in American democracy within their own borders.
The For Our Freedom Amendment would ensure that states have more flexibility in regulating dark money in politics, knowing full well that foreign actors may not have our best interests at heart. Without a constitutional amendment, state laws in Ohio, my home state of Texas and across America risk being struck down.
Together, we can keep our future free for America’s children and grandchildren — a future chosen by Americans, not foreign adversaries.
• Angela Paxton is a Texas state senator who represents District 8.
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