Follow the Money

A few millionaires are trying to buy the rules of our elections.

When we look at who paid for Question 3, the “grassroots reform and small donors” story falls apart fast.

Almost all the money came from a tiny group

The overwhelming majority of the funding behind this measure came from a small cluster of wealthy donors, most of them private-equity executives. This is not a movement of small donors and town meetings. It is a well funded campaign financed by a handful of people with the means to write very large checks.

As of their most recent report - the proponents have raised $2,198,752.04 total. 97% of that money raised came from gifts over $10,000, and $1,500,000 of that came from only 7 donors.

Why wealthy donors want this

Ask the obvious question: why would private-equity millionaires spend this kind of money to change how you vote? A system where only two candidates reach November, and where the primary is the decisive contest, is a system that rewards whoever can spend the most early. Big money goes further when the real race is settled in a crowded primary.

They’ve run this play before and lost

In 2024, voters in state after state rejected nearly identical measures. In one state, a structurally identical proposal lost decisively even though its backers outspent the opposition by roughly twenty to one. Money can put a measure on the ballot. It can’t make it a good idea and voters keep seeing through it.