In 2024, Missouri passed a ballot initiative that overturned a near-total abortion ban and made abortion legal in the state until the point of viability, thanks in part to millions of dollars in foreign funding.

Proponents of the measure far outspent their opponents, with more than $31 million spent on getting voters to support the ballot measure.

That includes millions of dollars in foreign funds contributed to the “Vote Yes” campaign by the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a D.C.-based dark money group that has taken nearly $300 million from Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss. The group was one of the top donors to the ballot initiative, with $4.6 million spent.

Now, several states are focused on passing legislation to close a statutory loophole that allows foreign nationals to contribute money to ballot initiatives.

Election experts say the time to close the loophole is now, ahead of the 2025 and 2026 elections.

“It’s one of the most basic elements of self-governance of our elections that only citizens should be voting and only citizens should be making decisions in the context of elections,” said Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project.

But while there are laws on both the federal and state levels that prohibit foreign nationals from influencing elections, the laws do not govern ballot initiatives.

Prior to 2024, just eight states had laws closing the loophole: California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Washington. And not all of the state laws were created equal: South Dakota and Maine only ban foreign governments, not individuals, from contributing to ballot-measure campaigns.

While the ballot-initiative loophole is a longstanding issue, states have come to see a sense of urgency in recent months as the left increasingly focuses on ballot referenda as a way to achieve their political goals.

“The left as a whole has really been focused on weaponizing ballot measures to push their agendas into the constitutions of red states, while also using those constitutional amendment fights to help drive turnout to help liberal candidates win some of their elections to state or federal office,” Snead said.

An enormous amount of money has been contributed to left-wing causes through the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which has spent $130 million in 26 states to lock their influence into state constitutions, according to an analysis from Americans for Public Trust.

In 2024, $37 million in foreign money poured into eight states that had ballot initiatives covering an array of topics from abortion to minimum wage to paid sick leave and election reform — ballot initiatives that largely passed.

The group spent millions on abortion ballot measures in both Arizona and Montana, both of which also passed.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund spent $14 million on a Florida ballot-initiative campaign on abortion alone in 2024 — though that measure ultimately failed.

“Now that we’re seeing these ballot initiatives become so important to the left and we’re watching foreign-tied money being spent hand over fist in those campaigns, this loophole has become an urgent one to close and we’re very grateful to see so many states stepping forward to protect the integrity of their elections from all forms of foreign interference,” Snead said.

At least 15 states have now introduced legislation to close the foreign-funding loophole.

Ohio led the way last year, while Wyoming and Kentucky followed suit in recent months.

“I think it’s a matter of consistency between our candidate elections and our ballot issue elections,” Kentucky State Representative John Hodgson told the Kentucky Lantern. “Right now, the law is inconsistent. It’s just an oversight. And I think there will be increasing pressure in future years, especially as people propose constitutional amendments, to keep the foreigners out of our elections that have not bought into our American system.”

In Wyoming, the secretary of state’s office said the Cowboy State’s measure banning foreign funding in elections is “a key plank of our conservative election integrity agenda,” as well as a “landmark piece of legislation and pivotal to ensuring foreign nationals are banned from meddling in Wyoming elections.”

While Congress can take action to close the loophole — Representative Brian Fitzpatrick introduced the Stop Foreign Funds in Elections Act in the 118th Congress, though the measure failed to advance — Snead and Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, say the onus is on states to take the lead and protect their elections.

Luckily, there’s major momentum on the issue, not only with four states having either signed measures into law or sent bills to their governors’ desks in recent weeks, but with President Trump issuing an executive order on election security that also prioritized going after foreign nationals influencing elections.

“So at the local state and federal level, I think this really just sends signals that now is the time to prioritize it,” Sutherland said, pointing also to polling that Honest Elections Project Action has done in several states that found more than 80 percent of respondents support keeping foreign funding out of elections.

For example, 82 percent of Floridians believe foreign nationals should be banned from donating to ballot-issue campaigns in the Sunshine State — that includes 85 percent of Republicans, 83 percent of independents, and 78 percent of Democrats. Eighty-nine percent of respondents said Florida lawmakers should prioritize closing the foreign-funding loophole.

“This is a very common sense, very popular sort of measure,” Snead said. “And it’s really important to get it done now before we move into another election cycle, and there’s the potential for this foreign-tied cash to continue to taint or influence the results of elections.”

In 2026, there will “almost certainly be a number of ballot measures in red and purple states that undoubtedly have an ulterior motive — the desire to drive turnout and help influence candidate elections,” he added.

Reprinted with permission from National Review by Brittany Bernstein.

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.