Nebraska sues nonprofits, key funder, alleging they financed ballot initiatives with ‘foreign money’

Advocates for minimum paid sick leave for Nebraska workers brought boxes of petition signatures to downtown Lincoln before bringing them to the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office on June 27, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

LINCOLN — Nebraska is suing six national nonprofit organizations and a major funder of those organizations, alleging that he and the groups illegally spent more than $10 million to boost the state’s progressive election initiatives with “foreign money.”

It’s the first time the state has filed a lawsuit under a 2022 law the legislature passed banning foreign nationals campaign finance election issues in Nebraska.

Attorney General Mike Hilgers, a Republican, announced Wednesday that his civil lawyers had traced the Swiss billionaire’s money. Hansjörg Wyss donated to U.S. nonprofits and found that they contributed to seven ballot initiatives by passing the donated money to local nonprofit groups that advocate for related issues in the state.

The national nonprofit organizations named in the lawsuit are the Wyss Foundation, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the Berger Action Fund, the New Venture Fund, the Hopewell Fund, and the Fairness Project. Hilgers said the groups have sent more than $10 million to the state since mid-2022, including $8 million in 2024 alone.

A spokesperson for the Wyss Foundation and Berger Action Fund said the attorney general’s allegations were “false.”

“We are confident that the facts will demonstrate that the Wyss Foundation and Berger Action Fund have always complied with the law,” the spokesperson said.

The Fairness Project declined to comment. Sixteen Thirty Fund, New Venture Fund and Hopewell Fund did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

The state filed suit in Madison County District Court, where it asked the Norfolk court to block the sued groups from directly or indirectly financing future election campaigns.

The state’s lawsuit alleges that Nebraska advocacy nonprofits were used as conduits for the money, including an anti-poverty group. Nebraska Apple Seeds and the voting rights organization Civic Nebraska. Local groups have not been prosecuted.

Appleseed, reached Wednesday, declined to comment on the litigation. A Civic Nebraska spokesperson had no immediate comment.

“The idea that we should not have foreign funding for our local elections is something that crosses party lines and ideological lines,” Hilgers said.

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Wyss is considered a major force in Democratic politics nationwide, donate to many causes. The Wyss Foundation also invested in journalism projects to develop environmental journalism at the Los Angeles Times.

The Wyss Foundation also donated to States Newsroom, the parent organization of the Nebraska Examiner. The foundation is part of listed donors on the States Newsroom website who contributed more than $1,000 and are listed on its 990 tax forms. Annual fundraising exceeds $20 million to support nonprofit news operations in 39 states.

States Newsroom said it complies with all laws regarding nonprofit organizations and does not accept donations from foreign-based entities. Donors don’t dictate the news decisions.

Although Hilgers said he hasn’t seen the same type of foreign money spent on ballot initiatives he considers conservative, dark money in political campaigns has been a problem for both Nebraska Democrats and Republicans.

Former U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican from Nebraska, for example, was convicted of lying to federal investigators in a case stemming from the embezzlement of a Lebanese billionaire for his 2016 congressional campaign. The conviction was later overturned on technical grounds, and the second Trump administration chose not to attempt to sue him again.

Hilgers said he does not intend to use his lawsuit to overturn ballot measures that voters have already approved.

Nebraska has seen a wave of progressive ballot measures, including raising the minimum wage, requiring businesses to pay sick leave and legalizing medical marijuana, passed in recent years.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund, the Fairness Project and the Hopewell Fund gave a total of $2.25 million to the paid sick leave campaign, according to Hilgers’ lawsuit. The New Venture Fund, the Hopewell Fund and the Fairness Project contributed a total of $4.65 million to the abortion rights initiative, according to the lawsuit. Some groups donated nearly $190,000 to the school voucher campaign, the complaint alleges. And one of them donated $100,000 to the medical cannabis effort.

A mostly conservative group of state lawmakers in the officially nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature has often brought up funding for out-of-state ballot initiatives when objecting to some of what voters approved in the last legislative session, including efforts to weaken sick leave protections.

While federal election law prohibits foreign nationals from spending on federal, state, and local elections, a 2021 Federal Election Commission Decision found that foreign nationals could contribute to state ballot initiative committees.

Thirteen states, including Nebraska, have banned direct and indirect contributions from foreign nationals to state election campaigns. Six other states prohibit foreign nationals from contributing directly.

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